234 Dr Fleming on the Geological Deluge 
in our modern strata, is the occurrence in the same gravel of the 
bones of animals which have become extinct, with such as have 
been extirpated by the chase, and with such as still inhabit the 
country. This fact, while it throws great light on the early 
state of the animal kingdom, may be regarded as the death- 
blow of the diluvian hypothesis. The extinct animals were, ac- 
cording to Baron Cuvier and Professor Buck-land, antediluvian, 
and perished from off the earth, by the destructive agency of 
the diluvian waters. The objection to this explanation is un- 
answerable. The diluvian waters must have drowned all land 
animals ; yet many which lived in the reputed antediluvian 
world, still live and flourish, in the same countries where the re- 
mains of their progenitors lie interred. I can find no attempt 
to explain these facts, except that, in the Reliquiae Diluviance , 
(p. 41.), there is mention made of certain species having “ re- 
established themselves in the northern portions of the world 
since the deluge and by the same author ( Edin . Phil. Journ. 
No. xxiv. 308.), of others “ that have repeopled this country 
since the formation of the diluvium.” The history of this re- 
establishment or repeopling not being given, we cannot examine 
the value of the evidence adduced in its support. But we may 
ask, if the geological deluge ever took place, from whence 
did the modern animals proceed which repeopled the country ? 
If there was any place within the limit of the geographical dis- 
tribution of our present animals which the diluvian waters did 
not reach, then it may be supposed, that, independent of the 
sudden and transient nature of the inundation, a place of refuge 
might have been found, to which these animals retired during 
the fury of the agitated waters, and from whence they might 
issue forth to repeople the desolated regions. But, the history 
of the geological deluge does not warrant such a supposition ; 
nor, even if it did, would the difficulty be removed. We could 
not avoid drawing the inference, that the place of refuge for the 
deer and the ox during the catastrophe, might have yielded pro- 
tection to the gigantic elk and the mammoth. If any great in- 
undation occasioned the extinction of these reputed antediluvian 
quadrupeds, its ravages must have extended to the other species 
having the same distribution, feeding in the same meadow, or 
browsing in the same forest. 
