LECTURE XII. 365 



at some distance as a protection against the nortli-east wind, 

 wliicli throws the waves far up the shore. But if the basis 

 upon which the computation rests becomes narrower, by the 

 assumption that convent and poplars stood at some distance 

 from the water, the time which the lake required to retreat is 

 increased in an inverse ratio. Assuming that the poplars 

 stood at the edge of the water, about 100 meters from the 

 convent, the lake was within seven centuries only filled up 

 275 meters, and required 8,000 years for its retreat; and, 

 assuming 200 metres distance between the poplars and the 

 convent, which might be supported by the mention made of 

 the poplars in the document on fishing, which poplars stood at 

 some distance, we obtain 13,000 years for the retreat of the 

 lake. At all events, the assumption of the least of the above 

 periods again shows that the Biblical Adam and his chronology 

 falls, between the piles, into the water. 



An attempt to save the chronology must be made, and pious 

 M. Troyon does not shrink from attempting it. In the vicinity 

 of Yverdun is seen, in the middle of the peat, a rocky island 

 about 400 feet high, called the Chamblon, at the foot of which, 

 about eight to ten feet below the peat, was discovered a pile- 

 work with stone hatchets. The distance between the pile-work 

 and the lake is, according to Troyon, 5,500 feet. Yverdun, the 

 Roman Eburodunum, is built upon a dune extending over the 

 turf. According to Troyon, the lake is said in the Roman 

 period to have washed the town ; at present it is 2,500 feet 

 distant from it. A simple comparison shows that if the lake 

 has in 1,500 years retired 2,400 feet, it must have required 

 3,300 years to retire from the pile work, and so Biblical 

 chronology is saved. 



Unfortunately there are also sceptics in the faithful Canton 

 of Yaud, and a M. Jayet, who for many years has inhabited 

 and explored the above district, finds but little difiiculty in 

 upsetting the whole of this orthodox computation. 



" The peat in the vicinity of Chamblon," says Jayet, " pre- 

 sents a I'are peculiarity ; it is divided into two layers, which are 

 separated by a thick stratum of mud, evidently deposited by 

 the lake. The piles found in the upper peat layer are em- 



