xlii PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



into the subject, and propounds, as the basis of his argument, that 

 the remains of animals found in the caves afford the means of judg- 

 ing of the inhabitants and character of the surface of the earth before 

 the great Flood recorded in the Mosaic history ; and, further, 

 that the form and structure of hills and valleys, and the accumula- 

 tion of loam and gravel containing the remains of animals of the 

 same kind with those that occur in the caverns, must be taken as so 

 many results of the action of that great deluge, considered in the 

 light of a "recent and transient inundation" — being the last great 

 convulsion which has operated in modifying the form of the surface : 

 the terms ante-diluvial, diluvial, and post-diluvial expressing, there- 

 fore, the views of Dr. Buckland on the animals of the caves, the loam 

 and gravel deposits, and the alluvial deposits subsequent to them. 



Those who remember the first publication of this work must re- 

 member also the enthusiasm it created in the minds of all classes of 

 intelligent readers ; the geologist being struck with admiration at 

 the facts brought before him in so graphic a manner, whilst the theo- 

 logian felt, as it were, relieved from any apprehension he might have 

 entertained, by being thus assured that the earth itself gave out its 

 testimony to the truth of the Mosaic Deluge. All were therefore in 

 accordance respecting the value of the * Reliquiae Diluvianse ; ' and, 

 whilst searching the masses of earth impregnated with animal matter, 

 the contents of these animal charnel-houses, or gazing at the vivid 

 picture which Dr. Buckland had drawn of the hyaenas and of the 

 bears in their respective dens, or watching, as it were, the sup- 

 posed diluvial wave cutting through the earth's surface, forming val- 

 leys, and sweeping away the materials to form beds of gravel and 

 sand elsewhere, they overlooked the many flaws in the testimony which 

 they were thus adopting as a corroborative proof of that great cata- 

 strophe. The great Cuvier had already distinguished the hyaenas 

 and the bears from the existing species, and Dr. Buckland was fully 

 aware of such determination, as he recognizes and describes them as 

 distinct species : and yet, whilst carefully separating those deposits of 

 bones, &c. which from their contents he considered post-diluvial, he 

 still continued to represent the extinct species as a portion of the 

 inhabitants of the earth at the time of the Mosaic Flood, and there- 

 fore as contemporary with the still living species, or as a portion of 

 the present organic world. 



Whilst, however, dwelling on these apparent defects in the rea- 

 soning of this work, I cannot but state that in my own opinion the 

 difficulty of accounting for the formation of valleys and for the dis- 

 tribution of detritus by a diluvial wave, is much greater than that of 

 associating the extinct species described with the recent, as parts of 

 our creation ; for the one case requires the exhibition of physical 

 forces in a manner not easily conceived, whilst the other only assumes 

 that certain genera or species of animals inhabited at that remote 

 period portions of the earth where they no longer exist, and that the 

 extinct species were local and destroyed by the Deluge ; for, even adopt- 

 ing the most literal interpretation of the Mosaic account, the pre- 

 serving agency of man could not have extended to regions so remote 



