282 HASISADRA'S ADVENTURE vn 



example of a valley of erosion as any to be seen 

 in Auvergne or in Colorado. 1 



Thus, in the immediate vicinity of the vast 

 expanse of country which can be proved to have 

 been untouched by any catastrophe before, during, 

 and since the "glacial epoch," lie the great areas 

 of the ^Egean and the Red Sea, in which, during 

 or since the glacial epoch, changes of the relative 

 positions of land and sea have taken place, in 

 comparison with which the submergence of Moel 

 Tryfaen, with all Wales and Scotland to boot, 

 does not come to much. 



What, then, is the relevancy of talk about the 

 " glacial epoch " to the question of the historical 

 veracity of the narrator of the story of the 

 Noachian deluge ? So far as my knowledge goes, 

 there is not a particle of evidence that destructive 

 inundations were more common, over the general 

 surface of the earth, in the glacial epoch than 

 they have been before or since. No doubt the 

 fringe of an ice-covered region must be always 

 liable to them ; but, if we examine the records 

 of such catastrophes in historical times, those 

 produced in the deltas of great rivers, or in 

 lowlands like Holland, by sudden floods, combined 

 with gales of wind or with unusual tides, far excel 

 all others. 



1 See Teller, GeolorjineTie Besch,rc,ibung des sud-o*tlicJicn 

 Thessalien : Denkschrii'ten d. Akademie der Wissenschaften, 

 Wien, Bd. xl. p. 199. 



