84 
Now supposing the mean rate of descent of the rain in the 
Deluge to have been only one inch per hour, which is proved by 
the observations just mentioned to be possible, we may judge by 
the result of the foregoing calculation how enormous would be 
the weight of the water transferred from one locality to another 
by rain falling at this rate on the continents and islands 
generally, and continuing without ceasing forty days and forty 
nights. This transfer of weight would put the earth’s crust into 
a state of strain, and tend continually to deform it, at the 
same time that plasticity would probably be communicated to it 
by the great quantity of heat which, as is known from the 
theory of the mechanical equivalence of heat, would be 
developed by such mechanical conditions. When the effect of 
the simultaneous flow of the seas over the land (the cause of 
which has already been indicated) is also taken into account, it 
may well be supposed that the operation of the two causes 
would eventually produce ruptures at certain parts of the 
crust. Through the cracks thus opened the interior liquid 
would be ejected with great momentum, according to the 
resistance overcome, and by this means the ejected matter 
might be made to form mountain-ridges. The force of ejection 
would be greatly increased by the development of heat which 
would accompany the movements produced by this perturbing 
action. From the same cause the parts of the crust distant 
from the places of rupture might be put into a plastic, or semi - 
liquid state, and be susceptible of undulatory movements. 
When the pent-up energies have exhausted themselves in pro- 
ducing new conditions of equilibrium of the floating crust, the 
developed heat will be quickly dissipated ; and supposing the 
primary cause of the disturbance to decline at the same time, 
or to be withdrawn, the solid parts will resume their proper 
rigidity, and the final result will be seen in that surface-contour 
which, in addition to the more prominent features of peaks and 
mountain-ridges, exhibits the minor inequalities of hills and 
dales and terraces, partaking very much (so, at least, it seems 
to me) of the characteristic forms of waves and breakers. 
Since, according to the foregoing argument, the hypothetical 
forces which accounted for the phenomena of the Deluge, as 
described in Genesis, account also for upheavals of mountain- 
chains and concomitant circumstances relative to the earth’s 
surface, and since geological facts show that these upheavals 
took place at a comparatively recent date, not inconsistent with 
that assigned by Scripture chronology to the Deluge, the truth 
of the theory, and the reality of the phenomena it explains, 
may be considered to receive confirmation. The Deluge and 
