CREATION OF ANIMALS. 27 



their traces are visible in various regions in all 

 climates, and in the islands of various seas, and 

 in Iceland, near Hecla, the subterranean furnace 

 sends vast columns of water into the air, some- 

 times to the height of a hundred feet, and at the 

 base of half that diameter. 1 These circumstances 

 render it probable that fire was the agent, or one 

 of the agents, employed to send out the waters 

 from the abyss ; and this is no new hypothesis. 

 " It is the opinion of geologists," says Laplace, 

 " that, originally, there existed in the interior of 

 the crust of the earth, a great magazine of fire, 

 which according to them was the cause of the 

 deluge." Some writers suppose that the air was 

 driven downwards into the earth, being forced 

 through those chasms which opened towards the 

 sky, and that then by its expansion it drove out 

 the water. 2 



He who willed the deluge, and the destruction 

 of the primeval earth and heavens by it, 3 kept in 

 his own hands the reins, and guided the whole 

 body of means that he employed to fulfil the 

 great purposes of his Providence, saying to every 

 agent, " Thus far shalt thou go, and no further." 

 It must always be kept in mind that this was not 

 an event in the ordinary course of nature, and a 

 result of the enforcement of her established code 



1 See Hooker's Recollections of Iceland, 120. 



2 Rev. W. Jones' Works, x. 264. 



3 Pet. iii. 6, 7, and see Appendix, note 10. 



