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themselves at every avenue, as would have enabled 

 him to establish a theory, that should harmonize in all 

 its parts, and carry with it in the highest attainable 

 degree, the semblance of truth, if not the seal itself. 



As it is, his theory of the deluge, though plausible 

 and supported by facts, in themselves highly interest- 

 ing, is limited, imperfect, and destitute of that support 

 which is necessary to enable us to clear up the exist- 

 ing difficulties which present themselves, and in a 

 *hape so formidable as to bid defiance to every attempt 

 to reconcile them to his theory, consistently with the 

 principles of truth and philosophy. 



For example. If the deluge, which was doubtless 

 universal, was occasioned by an irruption of water 

 from the Southern ocean, and which, in its course, 

 swept from all the surface of southern Asia, the ani- 

 mal exuvia, and deposited them on the borders of the 

 Arctick sea, how does it happen that nothing of the 

 kind has hitherto been discovered in the same, or simi- 

 lar latitudes on the continent of North America ? 



On the contrary, the organick remains of animals 

 appear to have been carried in a direction, from north 

 to south across the continent of America, and deposit- 

 ed, as in Siberia, in the alluvion on its most southern 

 borders,* 



* It is not pretended, by any means, that all the animal remains 

 are deposited in the alluvial region; it is well known that they are 

 occasionally found in different parts of the country, as high as lat. 

 11, perhaps higher, and particularly the remains of the mammoth. 



