LECTURE XII. 367 



obtained a result which would have thrown the age of this 

 second pile-work far bej^ond the time of the Biblical Adam. 



The only trustworthy basis for computation, is the vertical 

 iiicrease of the ])eat in the districts where pile-works are buried 

 in the peat. For this we have at present unfortunately no 

 starting points ; my inquiries on this point of many naturalists 

 have not yielded any important fact in this respect. 



I cannot, however, leave this subject without presenting you 

 with a short summary of the absurdities in which man becomes 

 entangled when he attempts to force the facts furnished by 

 nature into the narrow frame of the Jewish family chronicle. 

 I take the book of Troyon {Les Hahitations Lacustres) , and 

 summarise thus. After the deluge, the peoples of Asia com- 

 mence their march to populate the whole earth. No doubt, 

 the art of building upon the water was first invented in the 

 dry highlands of Asia. The first settlers, the post-diluvial 

 squatters, sprung from the blood of Japhet, naturally march 

 along river-valleys and the coasts. They bring with them large 

 herds of domesticated animals. The travellers on the coast 

 are frequently stopped by the mouths of the rivers; the tra- 

 vellers in the valleys are delayed by marshes or rocks. The 

 land must be explored, and the domesticated animals must be 

 protected from the wild beasts.* They therefore made them- 

 selves rafts for protection. f Such a raft having been built, 

 it is not readily abandoned, as it forms a refuge for the old and 

 young. They have, therefore, rafts which are fixed when they 

 have a stoppage. " From rafts," says Saint Troyon, " to ship- 

 building is certainly a wide leap ; but the old tradition of the 

 deluge, and the ark of Noah which floated upon the waters, had 

 been preserved, and this tradition gave hints as to the fasten- 

 ing of the trunks requisite for constructing- a raft. If a family 

 abandoned a migratory life, the raft acquired the character of 

 a permanent habitation. But where the waves proved too 

 strong, the people naturally hit upon the idea of changing the 



* That these wild beasts, which also came from the ark of Noah, should 

 have spread more ra23idly than j>rivileged man, and should have threatened 

 him in his resting places, I cannot well understand. — C. V. 



t How could these rafts protect them from the ice-bears and phocce, which 

 are excellent swimmers, and were a,lso in the ark of Noah. — C. V. 



