42 



HISTORY OF THE SEA. 



which the flood was produced are stated in the Mosaic narrative : 

 the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows 

 of heaven were opened ; that is, the water rushed out from the 

 bowels of the earth, where it had been confined, and the clouds 

 poured forth their rains. This would seem to be a sufficient 

 explanation, if any explanation of an event clearly miraculous 

 and supernatural be necessary at all. It has been discovered, 

 however, that the Deluge might have been caused, and might at 

 any time be repeated, by a very simple process. It has been 

 demonstrated that the various seas and oceans which invest the 

 two principal hemispheres, contain water enough to overflow the 

 land and cover the highest mountains to the depth of twenty-two 

 feet, were their temperature merely raised to a degree equal to 

 that of the shallow tropical seas ! Were the Atlantic and 

 Pacific Oceans suddenly warmed to a point perfectly compatible 

 with the maintenance of animal life, they would expand suf- 

 ficiently to overflow the Cordilleras and the Alps. 



3. The needlessness of a universal deluge, as a partial one 

 would have answered all purposes. That the Deluge was 

 universal is distinctly stated by Scripture. Had not God 

 intended it to be so, he would hardly have instructed Noah 

 to spend a hundred years in the construction of an ark : a spot 

 of the earth yet uninhabited by man might have been desig- 

 nated, where Noah could have gathered his family ; there would 

 have been no necessity for shutting up pairs of all animals in 

 the ark with which to re-stock the earth, for they could have 

 been easily brought from the parts of the earth not overflowed 

 into those that were. Then we are told that the water 

 ascended twenty-two feet above the highest mountains, — a 

 distinct physical proof that the whole earth was inundated, for 

 water then, as now, would seek its level, and must, by the laws 

 of gravity, spread itself over the rest of the earth, unless, 

 indeed, it were retained there by a miracle; and in this case 

 Moses would certainly have mentioned it, as he did the suspen- 



