210 



or a hundred and eighty, and in some places two 

 hundred feet yearly. The Adige and the Po are 

 at the present day higher than the whole tract 

 of land that lies between them, and it is only 

 by opening new channels for them in the low 

 grounds, which they have formerly deposited, 

 that the disasters which they now threaten may 

 be averted. 



" The same causes have produced the same 

 effects along the branches of the Rhine and the 

 Meuse ; and thus the richest districts of Holland 

 have continually the frightful view of their rivers 

 held up by embankments, at a height of from 

 twenty to thirty feet above the level of the land." 



By similar observations on the Deltas of the 

 Nile and the Rhone, on the depositions along the 

 shores of the Black Sea, and the Sea of Asoph, as 

 well as in various other places, the Baron comes 

 to the conclusion I have already mentioned, 

 namely, that it can scarcely be more than five 

 thousand years since our continents received 

 their present form. He next proceeds to exam- 

 ine the progress of downs those fearful accu- 

 mulations of drift sand, the growth of peat 

 mosses, and the extent of mountain slips, and 

 finds, as the result of the whole enquiry, that the 

 Mosaic account of the time when the surface of 

 the earth last emerged, is fully confirmed. 



The irrefragable evidence to the truth of the 

 Divine record, which has thus resulted from the 

 discoveries of geology, is a new illustration of 

 the fact, that it is ignorance alone which throws 



