199 
sauvages ne se jettent dans les fleuves et que les inondations ne les entrainent 
que tres rarement.” 
But if this fluviatile theory is doomed to perish by force of facts, so must 
perish also the calculations of our scientists, who invent rivers where there 
are none ; and in order to make them flow at a level with the mouths of the 
caverns, as in Kent’s Hole, raise the bottom of the valley 70 feet,* or 300 
feet,+ or any other number up to 7,000 or 8,000 feet ; as we have seen in the 
previous pages would be needful in South America ; and then set themselves 
to calculate the time the rivers have been employed in excavating the valleys 
— a task which there is no appearance that they ever have been competent 
to perform ; seeing that ordinarily tranquil-flowing'rivers notoriously raise the 
bottom of the valleys (in my neighbourhood to the extent of many feet since 
the time of the Romans), and it must be remembered that all these streams, 
starting at first with so little fall, must have been tranquil-flowing streams. 
Mr. Boyd-Dawkins remarks that “the general surface of the valleys has 
undergone but little change since history began, and the excavation by the 
rivers has been so small as to have escaped accurate measurement ” (p. 271). 
“ J’ai fait remarquer que le terrain pampeen se trouve dans les Pampas, et 
jusqu’au sommet des Cordilleres dans les vastes depressions du plateau 
bolivien et du plateau de Cochabamba, jusqu’a la hauteur de 4,000 metres 
au-dessus du niveau de la mer. Si, comme I’a cru M. Danvin, le depot des 
Pampas n’etait que le produit des affluens fluviatiles dans un estuaire, 
comment s’explique la presence de ce meme depot dans les plaines et sur 
les plateaux ies plus eleves du monde ? Je crois qu’il faut entierement 
rcnoncer a cetle explication, puisque des depots identiques avec leurs ossemens 
se trouvent a toutes les hauteurs. Ils ne seraient point du k des causes 
partielles, mais bien a des causes generales purement terrestres, et l’on ne 
peut s’en rendre compte d’une maniere satisfaisante, qu’en admettant comme 
resultats de tous les faits geologiques observes sur le sol Americain, la 
coincidence d’effets d’un des reliefs de la Cordillere, avec la destruction 
complete des grandes races d’animaux qui lepeuplaient avant l’epoque actuelle 
et la formation du depot pampeen a ossemens, qui parait recouvrir presque 
toute l’Amerique meridionale.” — D’Orhigny, vol. iii. pp. 254, 255. 
The Pampas Deposit. 
“ Cette couclie, qui remplit le fond du bassin des Pampas, et compose 
exclusivement toutes les Pampas proprement dites, occupe une tres-large 
surface arrondie vers le sud ; surface qui n’aurait pas, a elle seule, moins de 
38 degres carres ou 23 - 750 lieues carrees de superficie— on dirait, en examinant 
l’argile pampeenne, qu’elle s’est, en quelque sorte, deposee dans un laps de 
terns tres-court comme le resultat d’une grande commotion terrestre.” — 
D’Orbigny, vol. iii. p. 73, also p. 52. 
Diluvium. 
As only one side of the question has hitherto been presented to the public 
by the advocates of the fluviatile theory, I subjoin McEnery’s remarks, under 
the head Diluvium (page 68, Lit. Kent’s Cave ) : — 
“ From an inspection of the compound character of the deposit repos- 
ing ou the substratum of rubble and enveloping the bones, it is certain 
* “ The Cave Men of Devonshire,” lecture by Mr. Pengelly, Manchester, 
1875. — “ If there is anything that is clearly established in the minds of those 
who have studied the phenomena of Kent’s Cavern, it is that the cave-earth 
was washed in through the present entrances of the cavern, which it will be 
remembered are some 70 feet above the bottom of the valley,” &c. 
f Boyd-Dawkins, p. 275. 
