86 ERA OF THE SUPERFICIAL FORMATIONS. 



land from the sea, and the concluding great event of the geo- 

 logical history. 



The idea of such a deep immersion of the land unavoidably 

 suggests some considerations as to the effect which it might 

 have upon terrestrial animal life. Some, regarding it as a 

 complete submersion, argue that terrestrial life would be, oh 

 such an occasion, extensively, if not universally, destroyed. 

 Nor was the idea of its universal destruction the less plau- 

 sible, when it was believed that the present land animals are 

 an entirely new set of species, introduced since the conclusion 

 of the Tertiary Formation. It must now be owned that there 

 are insurmountable objections to such hypothesis. First, it 

 is not true that the specific forms of the tertiary epoch have 

 all of them disappeared. There are several for example, a 

 badger of the Miocene which are not in the slightest degree 

 distinguished from living species. Many reptiles, now living 

 in India, have been proved to be coeval with the Himalayan 

 Anoplothere, Mastodon, and Hippopotamus. Second, the 

 specific distinctions alleged in a great number of cases be- 

 tween tertiary and existing animals are extremely slight, and 

 such as we have no fixed principle by which to be assured 

 that they mark new species, in the sense of a new creation. 

 Finally, the tertiary animals of America indicate an approxi- 

 mation to the character of existing animals in that region, 

 and tertiary animals of the other great continent, equally ap- 

 proximate to those at present occupying it ; showing that the 

 demarcations of the present great zoological provinces had 

 been already marked out, and have never been obliterated. 

 There is therefore enough to justify us in believing that no 

 entire submergence of the earth took place at the time of the 

 Diluvium, though how nearly it might approach completeness 

 we cannot say. 



There are some other superficial formations, of less conse- 

 quence on the present occasion than the diluvium namely, 

 lacustrine deposits, or filled-up lakes ; alluvium, or the de- 

 posits of rivers beside their margins ; deltas, the deposits 

 made by great ones at their efflux into the sea ; peat mosses ; 



