94 OUTLINES OF GEOLOGY. 



with one igneous flood. Such is the close of the existing 

 state of things predicted in Scripture, and rendered probable 

 by the analogy of geological phenomena. 



201. It is to be inferred, that the phenomena of the eleva- 

 tion of mountain ridges, accompanied and preceded as they 

 must have been by earthquakes, would have produced a vio- 

 lent action in the waters of the ocean. In the much less vio- 

 lent commotions which are still occasionally witnessed, great 

 waves are raised, which are thrown with violence over the 

 shore. Of this we have instances, among others, in the de- 

 struction of Port Royal and Callao. If such phenomena 

 accompany partial earthquakes, which find vent in the feeble 

 eruptions of modern volcanoes, we may conceive how great 

 must have been the commotion when such ranges of mountains 

 as the Alps, the Himmalaya, and Andes, rose from the depths 

 of the ocean. In conformity with this view of the subject, 

 we find that the geological epochs of the formations of the 

 triasic and carboniferous sandstone and conglomerates, indi- 

 cating a violent action of water, were those of the elevation 

 of numerous mountain chains ; that these, although numer- 

 ous and frequent, being of small extent, the formations do not 

 occupy a great portion of the earth's surface ; that the eleva- 

 tion of the Alps and Himmalaya seems to have been attend- 

 ed with an universal deluge, which in all probability imme- 

 diately preceded the Mosaic epoch of the creation of man. 

 Pursuing the same view of the subject, it may be inferred : 

 that the elevation of the Andes presents a physical cause 

 sufficient to account for the deluge of Noah, which, however 

 violent upon the new continent, must, upon the old, at such a 

 distance from the source of the catastrophe, have been slow 

 and gradual in its rise. 



202. It remains to inquire into the physical causes of the 

 heat, which has played so prominent a part in the changes 

 which the earth's surface has undergone. The law of spe- 



