22^ Dr Fleming on the Geological Deluge. 
fractured surface, and the edges and corners still nearly .entire. 
But when we find the reverse of all this generally to be the case, 
we must draw the conclusion, that the fury of the agent, which 
collected the contents of these beds, was chiefly expended on the 
loose and weathered blocks on the surface. This is a fact of 
some value, especially when viewed in connection with other cha- 
racters exhibited by the gravel. 
The clay or loam associated with the gravel, according to Pro- 
fessor Buckland, 44 possesses no character by which it is easy to 
ascertain the source from which it has been derived, but usually 
varies with the nature of the hills composing the adjacent dis- 
tricts . ^ — ( Rel . DU. 191.) On the supposition that this loam was 
derived from the finer portions of the soil and detritus removed 
by the waters of the deluge, we might expect that it would pos- 
sess something like a common character, not in England only, 
but over the globe. But when we see it vary with the nature of 
the neighbouring hills, and consequently with the soil and detri- 
tus which they produce, we are irresistibly led to infer the ope- 
ration, not of a universal, but of a local agent. 
According to Professor Buckland, the 44 diluvial gravel is al- 
most always of a compound character, containing amongst the 
detritus of each immediate neighbourhood , which usually forms 
its greatest bulk, rolled fragments of rocks, whose native bed 
occurs only at great distances, and which must have been drifted 
thence at the time of the formation of the gravel, in which they 
are at present lodged." — (lb.) The rolled character of the gra- 
vel is fatal to the supposition of a sudden and transient inunda- 
tion, acting upon fresh portions of dislocated strata. The cir- 
cumstance of some of the blocks having travelled from a distance, 
is equally satisfactorily explained, on the supposition of a partial 
flood, occasioned by the bursting of an alpine lake, as by a sud- 
den and universal flood. We can scarcely, however, avoid ask- 
ing the question, Would not a general flood, raging violently, 
have produced gravel, of so confused and mixed a character, as 
to render it difficult to trace the origin of its materials ? This 
local character, though apparently hostile to the diluvian hypo^ 
thesis, is of importance to society in an economical point of view. 
Norway has suffered much from this transient flood, for, accord- 
ing to Professor Buckland, pebbles of her rocks have been car- 
