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the strain will continually increase as the evaporation proceeds, 
sooner or later the envelope, according to the degree of its 
plasticity or rigidity, will yield, or actually be broken. In 
either case the bed ot the ocean would rise and the continents 
correspondingly sink, and this movement will go on increasingly 
so long as the disturbing cause is operative. It might thus 
very well happen that the waters of seas and oceans would be 
caused to rise up as if from fountains situated at their bottoms, 
and to flow over the adjoining parts of the continents, in- 
creasing thereby the effect of the deluge of rain. This may 
be the explanation of the statement in Scripture that “the 
fountains of the great deep were broken open/’ 
It is evident that the sinking of continents and mountains 
below the surface of the water would to appearance be the same 
as the rise of the water above them, and might by a mere 
spectator be described in the latter terms. We now know 
enough of terrestrial conditions to be sure that the mountains, 
if they remained fixed, could not be “ covered fifteen cubits 
upward” by the waters of either land or sea; but our theory, 
if true, enables us to interpret the language of Scripture as 
indicating, not the absolute height of the waters, but the height 
relative to the mountains, by whatever means that relative 
height was produced. It is the part of physical science to 
ascertain such means : Scripture only states the fact as seen. 
From known mechanical principles we may conclude that 
the sinking of continents and mountains would not stop when 
the operating causes — the evaporation and rain — ceased, but, by 
reason of the momentum acquired, would go on for a definite 
time, till by slow degrees the maximum depth was reached, 
after which there would be a return movement upwards. 
According to this interpretation of the Scriptural account, this 
upward oscillation brought the mountain-tops into view two 
hundred and twenty-four days after the commencement of the 
rain, or one hundred and eighty-four days after its cessation. 
Although Scripture points only to a single downward and a 
single upward movement, it is known from mechanical prin- 
ciples that these initial oscillations would be followed by others 
of smaller magnitude ; and we may presume that the earth's 
interior and crust returned to a condition of equilibrium and 
fixity by a succession of constantly-decreasing oscillations. The 
interval during which this took place would be one of com- 
parative quietude, and may be supposed to correspond to that 
in which the raven and the dove were sent out of the ark, and 
the dove returned with a plucked olive-leaf in her mouth. 
The only remaining statement in the biblical narrative which 
