146 ONTOLOGY. 



wholly inconceivable. Nor is alternating elevation and 

 depression of the soil necessary to the explanation of this 

 phenomenon. 



671. During the time of precipitation the tempera- 

 ture of the water and consequently of the earth and air 

 also was necessarily raised. All creatures, which then 

 originated, must correspond therefore to those of warmer 

 climates. 



672. The fossil remains do not require the assumption 

 of a change having taken place in the inclination or 

 bearing of the earth's axis ; nor of a heating of the surface 

 by a fiery interior. 



673. With every later precipitation other animals and 

 plants must originate, because the temperature and also 

 the mixture of water was changed. The fossils therefore 

 indicate the age of the sedimentary strata. 



674. During the last precipitations the creatures of 

 colder climates must have originated. 



675. Land animals cannot, or but rarely, be found in 

 the sedimentary strata, if even they had already been in 

 existence prior to their formation. For the inundations 

 did not break in suddenly, but the water rose by degrees. 

 They had time therefore to retire to the high grounds. 



676. Land plants may, on the contrary, lie in the 

 sedimentary strata, because of their inability to escape. 



677. The bones of birds and men must be found least 

 of all fossilized, because a retreat by them was most easily 

 effected. It does not follow, from our not finding them, 

 that they have not existed. 



678. The different fossil remains have therefore not 

 simply lived, where they are found, but originated there 

 also. Some of course may have been floated also to 

 these localities. 



679. The inundations of water were in general neces- 

 sary, because basins of land and precipitations were 

 everywhere present ; but not all on that account at the 

 same time. 



680. In this sense there was a general flood, a deluge, 

 namely, for every land. 



