THE ORDEAL BY FIRE. 29 



that a hundred thousand feet of sediments would have 

 been deposited in one hundred and fifty days, or at the 

 rate of one eighth of a mile a day ? 



Consider, also, the myriads of organic remains entombed 

 in these sediments. Their number is fifteen or twenty times 

 as great as that of all existing animals. No evidence exists 

 that the waters of the Mosaic flood were so immensely pop- 

 ulous, nor that they were endowed with such destructive 

 energy, as to sweep from existence cubic miles of aquatic 

 forms. And, lastly, it will be noted that four fifths, at least, 

 of the fossil species are now extinct ; and, if they were ex- 

 terminated by the deluge, the objector to geological teach- 

 ing trips his own feet, for Moses says that Noah preserved 

 pairs of "all flesh wherein is the breath of life, and of every 

 thing that is in the earth." The objector asserts that these 

 animals, now admitted to be extinct, were living at the time 

 of the Deluge, and were exterminated by that event. The 

 sacred historian asserts that the animals living at the time 

 of the Deluge were preserved from extinction by the hand 

 of Noah. 



Equally improbable and equally illogical is the position 

 of certain petrified philosophers, who maintain that God 

 created every portion of the earth's crust as we find it. 

 We must thus ignore the indications of every one of a 

 myriad of facts. As well deny that human hands built 

 the Roman aqueduct, or made the pottery exhumed from 

 buried cities or Indian mounds. As well avow our disbe- 

 lief that Vesuvius ejected the lavas which incrust its sides 

 — that the lightning has struck the riven oak — that the 

 pebble upon the sea-shore has been rounded by the action 

 of the waves — or that the vacated shell by its side was, 

 not long since, the home of an animal enjoying its exist- 

 ence in the brine. Such a belief is to contradict all ap- 

 pearances — to reject that which is most probable and al- 



