328 Notice and Review of the Reliquiae Diluvianae. 
el of the earth. But we have not room to discuss this 
point, and would refer our readers to the second Essay of 
Mr. Greenough, in his First Principles of Geology, as well 
as to the work under review. And Mr. Buckland refers us 
to a paper of Sir James Hall, in Vol. VII. of the Trans. 
of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and says, ‘the whole 
of this paper is so very accurate and satisfactory, that 1 
strongly recommend the perusal of it to the attention of ev- 
ery one who has the smallest doubts as to the evidence 
there is to prove that the surface of the earth owes its last 
form not to the gradual change of existing causes, but to 
the excavating force of a suddenly overwhelming and tran- 
sient mass of waters.” Any one who will thoroughly ex- 
amine this subject, will be led, we think irresistibly to the 
conclusion, that the diluvium which meets us every where, 
and contains the bones of extinct species of animals, along 
with some that now inhabit the earth, must have been the 
result of such a catastrophe. Mr. Buckland has given us 
the details of all the important observations which have 
come to his knowledge, concerning diluvium in different. 
parts of theearth. The facts in England, on the subject, 
indicate a current from the north, and in Scotland, from 
the north-west. Indeed, the waters of the deluge seem to 
have taken a southerly direction, over the greater part of Eu- 
rope, and Mr. Buckland quotes from a memoir of Dr. 
Bigsby, to show that a northerly diluvial current bas pass- 
ed over the northern part of the continent of America. He 
might have found also a more extensive collection of facts 
to establish this point, in the Geological Essays of Mr. 
Hayden, published in 1820: and indeed, since Mr. Buck- 
land has quoted from this Journal, where Mr. Hayden’s 
work is reviewed, we are rather surprised that he takes no 
notice of it. Mr. Hayden does indeed confound alluvium, 
diluvium, and the older unconsolidated strata together ; for 
he speaks of “alluvion and other formations alternating 
with cach other.” But this does not render unintelligible, 
or less valuable, the facts he has collected relative to the 
distribution of pebbles and bowlders. In regard to the 
immense regions of central North-America, the numerous 
scientific expeditions that have been performed by our 
countrymen under the patronage uf government, contain 
enough to satisfy every one that the surface is overspread 
