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many recurring generations, ice of the Glacial period. What does it record P 
The sudden destruction and instantaneous preservation of numerous mam- 
malia, which year by year released from their icebound prison, are devoured 
by ravenous bears and other denizens of the polar seas. Numberless tusks lie 
scattered over Asia, imperishable records of a sudden destruction which over- 
took the animals in whose heads they grew. Is it not probable that these 
animals and men were overwhelmed, and, it may be, frozen as those now found 
nearer the Pole, and that as the ice dissolved their bodies were devoured, 
and the tusks alone remain the record of their pre-existence ? 
These did uot go out one by one. By a cataclysm alone can this sudden 
destruction and preservation be accounted for ; we do not know of any “ every- 
day operations which are capable of producing such effects.” 
The author’s second question is, “ Can we assign any exact numerical 
estimate of years since these beds were laid down ? ” 
He remarks, “We have to deal with facts so clear, so numerous, so wide- 
spread, and so similar everywhere, that we must at once refer them to the 
common ways of river denudation.” 
Were it necessary to refer the geological facts alluded to, to the “ common 
ways of river denudation,” the conclusion of the author “that the age of man 
must be a large multiple of the historic times ” would possibly be inevitable ; 
but I do not think that such necessity exists, or that such reference can explain 
the facts referred to. 
It appears certain that man did live with the extinct mammalia during part 
at least of the Glacial period. During that period the atmosphere of the 
temperate zone would be most conducive to health and longevity ; the sky 
cloudless, the air dry and moderately warm, the ground wetted by dew alone. 
(Por God had not yet caused it to rain on the earth.) The theory I would 
suggest as worthy of consideration is, that when the glaciation attained its 
maximum degree, the disturbance of the equilibrium of the crust was so 
great, owing to the enormous accumulation of ice and snow at the poles, that 
a cataclysm did occur, by which the ice-bound regions were plunged towards 
the Equator; that the ice and snow were launched from their seat; and that the 
consequent dashing to and fro of the waters caused a universal deluge, the 
deluge of the Bible, when Noah and his family, by the interposition of the 
Almighty, were saved, whilst the rest of mankind with the extinct mammal 
were overwhelmed and perished. 
I cannot expect this theory to be accepted without proof ; I therefore pro- 
pose to adduce some reasons for its suggestion. 
The frequent reference by the author and by Lyell to instances of “ depres- 
sion” and “upheaval” of the surface of the earth is an admission that the 
earth’s crust has a considerable freedom of motion vertically. Accepting this 
view (to a limited extent), the effect of any considerable weight added to one 
part of the surface would be to destroy the equilibrium of the crust, con- 
sidered as a spheroidal shell, and at the weakest parts to crush it, and elevate 
new mountain chains, and simultaneously, by volcanic action, to force from 
