Dr Fleming on the Geological Deluge. £17 
in causing the loose matter of the bank to descend. The lateral 
branches are produced by a similar process ; and the valley wi- 
dens as it advances, by the increase of its waters from the lateral 
streams, and the consequent increased transporting power. I 
am in the habit of employing an old-fashioned logic, and com- 
paring small things with great, referring analogous phenomena to 
the same cause, and proceeding from the distinct to the obscure. 
Under the influence of these principles, I feel myself compelled 
to conclude, that the old valleys, with the characters described, 
have been produced, like those forming under my eye, by the 
long-continued action of running water at the bottom. How a 
sudden, transient and universal flood, covering the highest hills, 
could have produced these effects, I cannot conceive. The main 
branch must have been first scooped out ; then the subordinate 
lateral branches, in succession ; and a current in the main branch 
following each, to clear away the rubbish. Had the lateral cur- 
rents been flowing simultaneously with the principal one, a bar 
would have been formed at the mouth of each branch ; and if 
there had been no succession of currents in the main trunk, it 
would have been filled with the materials of the lateral branches. 
To those who have studied the natural history of rivers, espe- 
cially their junctions with other rivers or with friths, the force 
of the objection will be obvious. 
It has been objected to the theory of the excavation of valleys 
by running water, that now no water flows through them. But 
water may have flowed through them, though now absent. The 
bursting of a lake, at a higher level, may have cut off the sources 
of several springs, and directed water through a distinct and 
very different channel from that in which it formerly flowed. 
b. The Impotence of Water as an Abrading Power . — The 
advocates of the diluvian hypothesis, have, in their zeal, com- 
mitted that mistake intimated by the schoolmen, “ Causam assig- 
nare quae causa non est.” It is impossible to form an ade- 
quate conception of all the effects which might result from a 
violent and transient inundation, covering the highest hills, and 
sweeping whole continents with destructive fury. The mind is 
lost in the vastness of the operation, and the imagination is left, 
unfettered, to pursue its reveries,— a most bewitching predica- 
