386 On the Mosaic account of the Creation. 



animals destroyed were carried back by the reflux of the 

 waves from the places where they died, to the land we now 

 inhabit. (< Let us suppose/" he says., that " the eastern coast 

 of America were to yield to the sea by successive subsidences 

 of its land, yet leaving after each subsidence a new resisting 

 coast sufficient to repel the waves; the reflux must still be 

 the same as if the continent remained entire ; and the 

 retiring current must equally make its way back to the coasts 

 of Africa and Europe." " The sea," he continues, " has 

 actually transported floating bodies from the West Indies to 

 the shores of Europe •" but he forgets to tell us what those 

 bodies were, whether animal or otherwise. 



The exuviae which are found in northern latitudes are 

 chiefly those of animals which are now extinct, or only living 

 in tropical countries, and it is therefore a matter much to be 

 doubted whether they could have been transported entire 

 from those scorching climates in which decomposition com- 

 mences almost immediately after death, to the now frozen 

 regions of Siberia ; yet according to Mr. Penn's views, they 

 must have withstood decay for a much longer period than is 

 now found to be the case even in our reduced temperatures, 

 for he says they were brought to these countries by the reflux 

 of the ocean, when the waters were descending again into 

 the place appointed to receive them ; that is, when they began 

 to be transfused from their proper bed, over the former 

 earth, and which transfusion causing, be it remarked, the 

 reflux by which tropical animals were carried to the north, 

 did not begin until " one hundred and fifty days, or five 

 months, from the commencement of the flood/ 5 



Truly those waters must have been endowed with great 

 antiseptic powers, to enable them to preserve entire and free 

 from putrefaction during the period of Jive months, and after- 

 wards to leave enclosed in a Siberian iceberg, such a huge 

 mass of flesh as the carcase of an elephant ! * He tells us 

 * See " Account of Siberian Mammoth." 



