332 LECTUEE 51. 



and specially in Central Asia, — tlie supposed cradle of huma- 

 nity, — the short form of head predominates, and if longheads 

 are found they bear no resemblance to the longheads of the 

 caves. At most, it might be assumed that Paradise was situ- 

 ated somewhere in Australia, whence these ancestors, of a 

 simious type, emigrated. It is not our business to pursue 

 speculations of this kind. 



There is, however, one matter to which, before I conclude 

 this lecture, I would draw your attention. There exists not a 

 single fact which in any way indicates a general flood, a deluge, 

 which reached the highest pinnacles, destroying all living beings 

 excepting such of our ancestors as found refuge in the Ark 

 of Noah. We find, indeed, everywhere phenomena indicative 

 of a greater height of the waters, but they nowhere rose very 

 high above the valleys, still less did they cover the summits of 

 the highest mountains. Nowhere are there traces of sudden 

 flood-catastrophes, everywhere we merely observe the slow 

 workings of such forces as still act. We have thus everywhere 

 an opportunity of making observations which induce us to con- 

 sider the tradition of a general deluge as a myth. Many times 

 has it been pointed out that the loose cones of volcanoes, built 

 up of scoriae and ashes, specially of the extinct volcanoes of 

 Auvergne and the Rhine, could never have resisted the force of 

 a general flood ; nevertheless, within the sight of these cones, 

 which must have existed at a more remote period, the old tale 

 is constantly repeated. The sun is now left in peace ; he no 

 longer walks the heavens but remains fixed. Shall we have to 

 protest, as in the former case, for two centuries, before they 

 give up the opening of the flood-gates of heaven and the foun- 

 tains of the deep, to drown "sinful beast and man "? 



