70 
The foregoing are mainly the facts stated in the Book of 
Genesis, which I propose to account for by a physical theory. 
But before proceeding to do this, it is right to say that the theory 
necessarily has reference only to the general condition, and kind 
of action, of the physical forces concerned in producing the 
, phenomena, and not to the precise amount of the results of their 
action, and that on this account it is incapable of giving quan- 
titative determinations admitting of comparison with the specific 
numbers which occur in the above statement of the facts. Pos- 
sibly these round numbers may be considered to mark out 
intervals that are approximately true as to their proportions, but 
not as to the actual magnitudes. 
It should also be here mentioned that for the following reasons 
I have not thought it necessary to inquire what might have been 
the particular circumstances under which the lives of all the 
different kinds of living creatures were preserved in the ark. 
Much that relates to the ark is of a miraculous character. The 
very act of preparing means of safety in anticipation of a deluge 
could only have proceeded from divine interposition. It was by 
special “ warning ” from God that Noah built the ark ; God 
also gave particular directions respecting its dimensions and 
construction; and it is added that when Noah with his family 
and the animals had entered into it, “ the Lord shut him in ” 
(vii. 16). On account of these avowedly miraculous circum- 
stances, it is needless to inquire by what special means the ark 
and the animals within it were saved from destruction. 
Moreover, I do not consider it necessary to take the 
terms of the biblical narrative as implying that the propaga- 
tion of the different kinds of animals was continued after the 
Flood exclusively through those that were saved in the ark. 
It is true that this is distinctly affirmed relatively to the human 
race, because it is said of the three sons of Noah, that “ of 
them was the whole earth overspread” (ix. 19). But it is 
not as expressly asserted that the offspring of all the living 
creatures that went out of the ark spread over the earth. It seems, 
therefore, allowable to interpret the account of the miraculous 
preservation in the ark of two of every kind, male and female, 
for the purpose of “keeping seed alive upon the face of all 
the earth” (vii. 3), as indicative of an effect which was produced 
by other means, also of a more extensive character and more 
. conformable with ordinai’y physical operations. These means 
might be such that they could not be intelligibly stated with- 
out reference to physical and geographical facts which were 
not then cognizable by common observation, and on that 
account would have no place in Scripture. Possibly also the 
