132 A CENTURY OF SCIENCE 



situations quite removed from large waters; inland, in high 

 banks, imbedded in strata, or scattered, occasionally, in pro- 

 fusion, on the face of almost every region, and sometimes on the 

 tops and declivities of mountains, as well as in the vallies 

 between them; their entire difference, in many cases, from the 

 rocks in the country where they lie rounded masses and peb- 

 bles of primitive rocks being deposited in secondary and alluvial 

 regions, and vice versa; these and a multitude of similar facts 

 have ever struck us as being among the most interesting of 

 geological occurrences, and as being very inadequately accounted 

 for by existing theories." 



The phenomena demanding explanation jumbled 

 masses of "diluvium," polished and striated rock, 

 bowlders distributed with apparent disregard of topog- 

 raphy were indeed startling. Even Lyell, the great 

 exponent of unif ormitarianism, appears to have lost faith 

 in his theories when confronted with facts for which 

 known causes seemed inadequate. The interest aroused 

 is attested by 31 titles in the Journal during its first two 

 decades, articles which include speculations unsupported 

 by logic or fact, field observation unaccompanied by 

 explanation, field observation with fantastic explanation, 

 ex-cathedra pronouncements by prominent men, sound 

 reasoning from insufficient data, and unclouded recogni- 

 tion of cause and effect by both obscure and prominent 

 men. With little knowledge of glaciers, areal geology, 

 or of structure and composition of drift, all known forces 

 were called in: normal weathering, catastrophic floods, 

 ocean currents, waves, icebergs, glaciers, wind, and even 

 depositions from a primordial atmosphere (Chabier, 

 1823). Human agencies were not discarded. Speak- 

 ing of a granite bowlder at North Salem, New York, 

 described by Cornelius (1820) 31 as resting on limestone, 

 Finch (1824) 32 says: "it is a magnificent cromlech and 

 the most ancient and venerable monument which America 

 possesses." In the absence of a known cause, cata- 

 strophic agencies seem reasonable. 



The Deluge. 



In the seventh volume of the Journal (1824) 33 we read: 



"After the production of these regular strata of sand, clay, 

 limestone, &c. came a terrible irruption of water from the north, 



