558 Remarks on the 



sequence, therefore, the Himalayan ranges are satisfactorily proved to 

 be post-diluvian, or subsequent to the deposition of the diluvial strata, 

 or, in other words, they can only date as mountains from the com- 

 mencement of the historical or post-diluvian era.* 



This point being gained, we may now proceed to trace the events 

 which occurred, from the rise of the waters which deposited the last se- 

 ries of strata, until their subsidence, and the commencement of the pre- 

 sent order of things. 



At the period when the deluge was produced, the present mountains 

 of the Himalaya were mere horizontal strata, beneath the gradually 

 accumulating aqueous deposits of the secondary series, which were then 

 submerged beneath the ocean, or beneath the waters of an estuary. 

 The situation of the land which bordered that estuary is now traceable 

 in the diluvial strata of the Sub-Himalayas, extending from the Punjab 

 to the Irawaddi, in which are entombed the exuviae animals, which at 

 that distant period inhabited the dry land. 



That large rivers flowed down from this land into the estuary, 

 which is indicated by the secondary strata, is proved beyond a doubt 

 by the occurrence in the diluvial beds of the remains of Trionycs, 

 Emides, and the larger Saurians, and that the climate of the land was 

 wholly tropical is likewise proved by the presence of these animals in- 

 termingled with the exuviae of Elephants, Mastodons, Hippopotami, 

 and others. These then inhabited the rivers and the land of the se- 

 condary era, precisely as do the analogous species of the modern era 

 inhabit rivers and terai, which skirt the present mountains. 



Now as secondary rocks occur along the western boundary from the 

 ocean through Beloochistan to Cabul, and from thence again along the 

 Himalaya in a south-easterly direction, along the northern and eastern 

 boundary to the Irawaddi or the sea, it is evident, that this anti-diluvian 

 country must have formed an extensive island, or perhaps one of a 

 group of islands, (traces of others occurring beyond the Himalaya,) 

 and it is therefore easy to be seen, that as the waters of the deluge rose, 

 the animals of the rivers and the land being enclosed on every side, 

 would have been overwhelmed together in one common ruin. 



When the waters had stood sufficiently long above the surface of the 

 globe to effect the purposes for which they had been permitted to 



•* We should rather say that the effects referred to are to be ascribed to local changes, such as 

 those occasioned by the Earthquake at Chittagong, changes which have operated at all times as 

 they do at present ; although we do not deny that they may have been more general at one time 

 than another. — Ed. 



