282 



DILUVIUM. 



have been in operation from the time the solid rocks 

 were deposited up to the general deluge. Here 

 were immense materials ready to become the sport 

 of a deluge of waters, and to be worked into all the 

 fantastic forms and shapes, by currents and counter- 

 currents, which we actually find them to have as- 

 sumed. 



There is another argument of great weight, which 

 proves that a powerful current from the north has 

 swept over the country, and that is, the scratches, 

 grooves, and furrows often to be seen on the sur- 

 faces of rocks that have never been moved from 

 their place. These run south and southeast, and 

 were evidently made by heavy stones moved over 

 their surfaces. The following sketch represents 

 such a rock in Massachusetts : 



We have stated that some geologists attribute the 

 diluvial deposites to the flood recorded in Scripture, 

 and that they also attribute that phenomenon to the 

 elevation of the strata. But if, as it is believed, the 

 tertiary strata were deposited before the deluge, 

 this could not have been the cause of that catastro- 

 phe, because the tertiary strata are horizontal, and 

 must, therefore, have been deposited after the eleva- 

 tion of the solid rocks beneath, or they would have 

 been raised and dislocated also. Accordingly, as 

 Mr. Hitchcock states, there must have been an in- 

 terval long enough between the elevation of the 

 strata and the last deluge for the deposition of this 



