332 Notice and Review of the Reliquiae Diluvianae. 
from the Chinese Tartars of Daba. They are obtained 
from the avalanches, and of course come from a region of 
perpetual frost. The natives believe them to have fallen 
from the clouds, and to be the bones of genii. In this 
opinion they do not greatly differ from our English pro- 
genitors; who, not many centuries ago, thought the remains 
of the mammoth, tiger, rhinoceros, &c. to be the bones of 
antediluvian giants, or even of the fallen angels? 
he conclusion to which we are brought by such facts as 
these, concerning the last grand diluvial catastrophewhich our 
planet has experienced, can scarcely be better stated than 
in the words of Moses: ‘And the waters prevailed exceed- 
ingly upov the earth; and all the high hills that were un- 
der the whole heaven were covered.” 
Thethird and last proof of diluvial action exhibited by the 
work before us, is found in the excavation of vallies. ‘This 
is intimately connected with the second argument; and 
Mr. Buckland treats of them together, except that he has 
added an appendix on the excavation of vallies. It is quite 
obvious that the immense quantity of rounded pebbles and 
bowlders, scattered over the earth’s surface, must have 
been derived from the solid strata; and itis quite as obvi- 
ous that the process by which this diluvial detritus was 
brought into its present form, must have produced vallies. 
Indeed, every body who looks at the innumerable vallies 
existing on the earth’s surface, imputes them at once to the 
action of running water. But the general belief is, that 
existing streams, evaienchiee and lakes, bursting their bar- 
riers, are sufficient to account for all their phenomena, and 
not a few geologists, especially those of the Huttonian 
school, at whose head is Professor Playfair, have till re- 
cently been of this opinion. So long ago, however, as the 
time of Catcott, this subject was ably handled, although his 
views have been much neglected till of late. But itis now 
very clear to almost every man, who impartially examines 
the facts in regard to existing vallies, that the causes now 
in action, mentioned above, are altogether inadequate to 
their production; nay, that such a supposition would in- 
volve a physical impossibility. We do not believe that 
one thousandth part of our present vallies were excavated 
by the power of existing streams. We are aware that some 
mountain torrents do exert, within narrow limits, a power- 
