2 CAUSE OF FAILURE OF THE EARLY 



questions, which have been fully dealt with by other 

 writers, I may pass over, and confine myself to the 

 question whether Geology furnishes evidence in 

 support of a flood of the magnitude and disastrous 

 consequences of the one typified in the ancient 

 narratives. 



Another cause of failure arose from the circum- 

 stance that these attempts were made in the infancy 

 of Geology, when the phenomena connected with 

 the later changes on the surface of the Globe those 

 connected with the so-called Drift or Quaternary 

 deposits were little understood, or, I may say, not 

 A little misunderstood. Not only so, but the special 

 class of Drift (the Bubble-drift of the author) which 

 .alone relates to this particular branch of inquiry 

 consists of such variable and often obscure deposits 

 that their significance has escaped general recogni- 

 tion. Besides this, the phenomena are localised 

 within such narrow limits that wide tracts of country 

 may be traversed without meeting with an exhibition 

 -of the Rubble-drift. Large areas have been swept 

 bare, and it is only where a lodgment has been 

 -effected in some hollows or cavities, or on slopes, 

 that the deposits become at all important. Their 

 diversities of character have also led to their being 

 considered as belonging to unrelated phenomena, 

 -and each form of this drift has received its 

 separate explanation. It has been my object to show 

 that they may all be grouped under one head and 

 admit of the same one explanation of their origin. 

 It is now known that the Tradition of the Noachian 



