16 THE DILUVIAL THEORY 



was too strong to be shaken by any evidence, then 

 brought forward ; and, though he afterwards aban- 

 doned his views respecting a universal deluge, he 

 adhered to those respecting the recent appearance of 

 Man. Nevertheless, Buckland's work is remarkable for 

 wide research and careful collocation of facts, and can 

 still be consulted with advantage. As Cuvier noted 

 the sites and established all the more important 

 characters of the Ossiferous Fissures, and of their 

 Quaternary fauna, so Buckland described most of the 

 essential features and sites of the Bone-Caves, and in 

 both instances their works have formed the ground- 

 work of all subsequent research on these subjects. 

 It must also be remembered that at the time these 

 distinguished men wrote the Drift had not been sub- 

 divided into its component stages, which were 

 all taken together as one deposit, and as the result of 

 one action namely, the rush of the diluvial waters on 

 the land. Whence they where all designated " di- 

 luvium" or " diluvial beds," terms which soon became 

 obsolete in this country, but are still in common use on 

 the Continent, although they are there now applied to 

 Drift beds of very different origin and date, and have 

 therefore no longer the significance of the original 

 name. In consequence of these changes, the term, 

 together with the diluvial hypothesis, fell into dis- 

 credit, and were dropped, even by their authors, as 

 untenable both on physical and biological grounds. 

 Nevertheless, there is, I am satisfied, an element of 

 truth in the original interpretation of the Drift 

 phenomena, founded as it was on the experience of 



