CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY. 413 



The occasional intervention of igneous irruption, whether subma- 

 rine or subterrene, below or among the strata of aqueous origin, or 

 upon them, only increases the necessity of time, and when these co- 

 incidences occur, they add to the evidence of grand geological cycles. 



But diluvial agency is, usually violent, sudden, and of short dura- 

 tion. 



If the universal deluge recorded in Genesis, be taken as the type of 

 diluvial action and the time and the elevation stated in the history be 

 taken into the account, nothing could be more violent, destructive, 

 overwhelming ; and certainly upon the face of the earth are every 

 where recorded, in legible characters, the necessary physical effects 

 of such a debacle. 



It has entered but little into the views of any except geologists to 

 discriminate between these two classes of effects. They are as wide 

 apart as possible, and nothing in science is more unskilful or more 

 unhappy than to confound them. 



The surface of our planet has been swept by violent, agitated tor- 

 rents of water, which covered the earth every where with its own 

 ruins, but probably this catachlysm did not form any of the firm 

 strata filled with organized remains. 



Miscellaneous Illustrations, from ManteWs Geology of the South 

 East of England."^ 



From this volume, the most recent in time, and not surpassed in 

 authority by any work on Geology, we now cite some miscellaneous 

 facts and conclusions, principally in the words of the respected au- 

 thor. 



His labors, ably seconded and illustrated by the talent and taste of 

 Mrs. Mantell, have shed a most unexpected light on the geology of the 

 South East of England ; and with the eflbrts in the same region, of 

 Webster, Murchison, Fitton, Buckland, and other eminent men, have 

 amassed materials upon which are erected general conclusions of the 

 greatest importance. Mr. Mantell's publications on local geology en- 

 title him to rank with Cuvier and Brongniart, whose grand work on 

 the environs of Paris, led the way in this species of research, which, 

 has since, been so ably and successfully followed in many places, and 

 in several countries. 



Chapter XI of Mr. Mantell's late work, from which our citations 

 will now be made, forms the conclusion of the volume, and presents 



* The preface of which is dated in April, 1833. 



