Gregory — Progress in Interpretation of Land Forms. 115 



We would beg leave to suggest the following as a cause which 

 may have aided in deluging the earth, and which, were there 

 occasion, might do it again. 



The existence of enormous caverns in the bowels of the earth, 

 (so often imagined by authors,) appears to be no very extrava- 

 gant assumption. It is true it cannot be proved, but in a sphere 

 of eight thousand miles in diameter, it would appear in no way 

 extraordinary, that many cavities might exist, which collectively, 

 or even singly, might well contain much more than all our 

 oceans, seas, and other superficial waters, none of which are 

 probably more than a few miles in depth. If these cavities com- 

 municate in any manner with the oceans, and are (as if they 

 exist at all, they probably are,) filled with water, there exist, we 

 conceive, agents very competent to expel the water of these cav- 

 ities, and thus to deluge, at any time, the dry land. ' ' 



The teachings of Hayden were favorably received by 

 Hitchcock, Struder, and Hubbard, and many Europeans. 

 They found a champion in Jackson, who states (1839) : 36 



•'From the observations made upon Mount Ktaadn, it is 

 proved, that the current did rush over the summit of that lofty 

 mountain, and consequently the diluvial waters rose to the height 

 of more than 5,000 feet. Hence we are enabled to prove, that the 

 ancient ocean, which rushed over the surface of the State, was at 

 least a mile in depth, and its transporting power must have 

 been greatly increased by its enormous pressure. ' ' 



Gibson, a student of western geology, reaches the same 

 conclusion (1836) : 37 



"That a wide-spread current, although not, as imagined, fed 

 from an inland sea. once swept over the entire region between 

 the Alleghany and the Rocky Mountains is established by 

 plenary proof." 



Professor Sedgwick (1831) thought the sudden up- 

 heaval of mountains sufficient to have caused floods 

 again and again. The strength of the belief in the Bib- 

 lical flood, during the first quarter of the 19th century, 

 may be represented by the following remarks of Phil- 

 lips (1832) : 38 



1 ' Of many important facts which come under the consideration 

 of geologists, the 'Deluge' is, perhaps, the most remarkable; and 

 it is established by such clear and positive arguments, that if any 

 one point of natural history may be considered as proved, the 

 deluge must be admitted to have happened, because it has left 

 full evidence in plain and characteristic effects upon the surface 

 of the earth." 



