NOTES AND QUERIES. 



309 



Sedgwick, who, in the Appendix to his Discourse on the Studies of the Uni- 

 versity of Cambridge, thus expresses himself : — 



" Between the first creation of the earth and that day in which it pleased 

 God to place man upon it, who shall dare to define the interval ? On this 

 question Scripture is silent ; but that silence destroys not the meaning of those 

 physical monuments of his power that God has put before our eyes, giving us, 

 at "the same time, faculties whereby we may interpret them and comprehend 

 their .meaning. In the present condition of our knowledge, a statement like 

 this is surely enough to satisfy the reasonable scruples of a religious man. 

 But let us for a moment suppose that there are some religious difficulties in the 

 conclusions of geology. How, then, are we to solve them ? Not by making 

 a world after a pattern of our own, not by shifting and shuffling the solid strata 

 of the earth, and then dealing them out in such a way as to play the game of 

 an ignorant hypothesis ; not by shutting our eyes to facts, or denying the evi- 

 dence of our senses, but by patient investigation, carried on in the sincere love 

 of truth, and by learning to reject every consequence not warranted by direct 

 physical evidence. Pursued in this spirit, geology can neither lead to any false 

 conclusions, nor offend against any religious truth." 



Evidences of Deluge — Geology of Stonehaven. — Dear Sir, — May I 

 trouble you with the two following queries ? — 



1. What evidence have we, geological or otherwise, apart from the history 

 of the Bible, of the existence of the Deluge ? The traditions of all nations, 

 whether in the new or old world, would seem to point to it ; but are they con- 

 firmed by direct evidence from the surface of the globe ? If so, are we to 

 suppose its action to have been local or general over the whole world, and what 

 date can we assign to it ? In no book can I find any clear answer to these 

 questions. 



2. Can you inform me whether there is any special interest in the geology 

 of the country aroung Stonehaven, in Kincardineshire, and whether I could 

 find any published account of it ? Hoping you will excuse the trouble, believe 

 me respectfully yours, S. M. 



1. As the Biblical Deluge is supposed to have taken place in the East, it 

 has been looked for in the valley of the Euphrates, and other great valleys, 

 and such evidence with regard to the Euphrates valley as seems to bear on the 

 subject, has been brought forward, if our memory serves us rightly, in Mr. 

 William Ainsworth's " Beseaches in Assyria, Babylonia, and Chaldea," pub- 

 lished in 1838. 



In Mr. Vernon Harcourt's work on the Deluge a great deal of information 

 is brought together on the subject of the Mosaic Deluge. 



Geological evidence generally tends to disprove the Universality of the 

 Deluge. Thus we have cones of volcanic ashes of early tertiary date still 

 existing in central France entirely undisturbed, and modified only by 

 atmospheric agencies. 



2. Stonehaven stands on the northernmost extension of the Old Bed of Eorfar 

 and Kincardineshire. The general stratigraphical features of the Old Bed of 

 this district, and a notice of the chief localities of fossils, have lately been 

 given by the Bev. Hugh Mitchell, of Craig, in the Journal of the Geological 

 Society (No. 66, p. 45, 1861). Some papers also on this subject have appeared 

 in the " Geologist," namely, " On the Elagstones of Eorfarshire," by Mr. 

 Mitchell (vol. ii., p. 119, 1859), and "Notice of New Eossils from the Lower 

 Old Bed Sandstone of Scotland" (vol. iii., p. 273), by the same author; and 

 " On the Old Bed Sandstone and its Eossil Eish in Eorfarshire, by Mr. J. 

 Powrie (vol. iii., p. 336). 



Balruddery, Tealing, Glammis, Carmylie, Leysmill, Carsegowrie, Brechen 

 and Cauterland, are noted localities in Kincardine and Eorfar for fossil fishes. 



