4 BEARING OF THE 



took place, is a possible contingency; and this, 

 while destructive to large populations in the lower 

 lands and plains, was compatible with the survival 

 of others who escaped to places that remained un- 

 submerged, whence, after the fall of the waters, they 

 repeopled the land. This reading would account for 

 the rapid growth of the new populations. In this 

 case also it is obvious that not only the animals 

 of the plains which fled to the higher grounds, but 

 also that the flora as well as the fauna of those 

 countries, would, with few exceptions, be preserved. 1 



According to the Tradition, the flood was of com- 

 paratively short duration, and this statement agrees 

 with the geological conditions, in that there is an 

 entire absence of such sedimentary deposits as must 

 have been formed had the waters rested long on the 

 land. As the other details of the story do not touch 

 on Natural Science, we need not pursue the subject 

 further in this direction. 



It has frequently been asserted of late years that 

 there is no geological evidence of a deluge having 

 passed over the surface of the land at the period 

 recorded. This may be accounted for partly by the 

 reasons given above, and partly by the circumstance 

 that, since Buckland wrote, the issues in question 

 have been considered closed and the subject neglected, 

 as most of the phenomena described by him have 

 been explained in other ways. 



The explanation I have suggested as a possible cause 



1 It may be a question whether, at the same time, there was 

 not likewise a great change of climate. 



