OF THE SEA AND LAND. 31 



I have shown that we possess demonstrable causes, in 

 the ordinary actions of rivers under the various cir- 

 cumstances already described. That Mr. Playfair at- 

 tributed these evident marks of drainage to human 

 art, is to be regretted ; since it diminishes the weight 

 of his authority on similar subjects. 



If I have often been compelled to notice the un- 

 philosophical adoption of the Mosaic Deluge as a geo- 

 logical cause, I am here bound to examine this sub- 

 ject at more length ; since, after abandoning nearly 

 all else which it has, at different times, been adduced 

 to explain, it seems to have taken its last stand on the 

 ground especially before me : having been made the 

 source of oceanic currents, producing the several effects 

 already discussed, often as incompatible in themselves 

 as with any power which can reasonably be assigned 

 to it. It has been supposed to have disjoined France 

 and England, to have deposited the British alluvia, 

 and to have filled the caves inhabited by antient ani- 

 mals. It is not easy to conceive how that current 

 which could separate Dover from Calais, should leave 

 our alluvia, reposing as they do, in the very same vici- 

 nity, and why it should not have swept away the in- 

 terred organic remains which have been supposed 

 proofs of that action. I would gladly have avoided 

 these remarks, for much graver reasons than the ap- 

 parent controversy involved in them : but it would be 

 to shun a serious duty, when I see the philosophical 

 evils, and the evils of a much more serious nature, 

 which it is producing. It would be a useless task, to 

 enter on a laboured discussion of this subject, with 

 those, who, superficially acquainted with a few facts 

 in geology, have wrested it to their purposes ; or who, 

 injudiciously anxious to support by physical evidence, 



