Dr Fleming on the Geological Deluge. 219 
The force of cohesion, or rather crystallization, is more than a 
match for water falling from any conceivable height, or moving 
with any known velocity. The numerous islands which occur 
around our coasts, even where most exposed, and the cascades 
so common in the hilly districts, attest the absence of this abra- 
ding or excavating power. Did it possess this power, the Straits 
of Dover and the Pentland Frith must by this time have become 
unfathomable ; Niagara should have ceased as one of the won- 
ders of the world, and wooded valleys should have occupied the 
place of the Canadian lakes. 
While I deny to water this abrading power, because the whole 
history of rivers is in opposition, I willingly admit its transport- 
ing power after disintegration has taken place,— a distinction to 
which the student in geology would do well to take heed. 
c. The Terraces in Valleys . — In many valleys, on the Conti- 
nent of Europe, in this country, and in America, terraces occur 
in the banks, which, from their horizontality, indicate their pro- 
duction by water at the period these valleys were lakes. Several 
terraces may be traced in some valleys, and these, according to 
Professor Buckland, <fi shew the number of successive stages by 
which the bursting of the gorge took place. 1 ’— (Rel. DU. 217.) 
In Lochaber four ’such terracesoccur, shewing four successive erup- 
tions. These terraces, however, are declared to be “ all of post- 
diluvian origin.” — (lb.) Whatever be the era of these terraces, 
they demonstrate a few truths, which cannot be very agreeable to 
the supporters of the diluvian hypothesis. Many lakes formerly 
existed, where valleys now occur ; and there are agents in Nature 
capable, at different intervals, of opening the barriers of these 
lakes, and permitting the water to escape suddenly. Such lakes 
and such agents may have existed before the flood. Each burst- 
ing must have resembled a deluge in its effect upon the district 
through which the waters passed, and the wrecks which it would 
accumulate at the lower level. When, therefore, we witness a 
valley, the present waters of which empty themselves by a nar- 
row gorge, how are we to determine whether that gorge has 
been opened before the deluge, at the deluge, or after the de- 
luge? The Vale of Pickering, in Yorkshire, may be taken as 
an example. According to Professor Buckland, it was an ante- 
