129 
mena as the above to the action of the Deluge, the names of 
Bucklandand Sedgwick might once have been numbered. 
Like Augustine with his Confessions, however, they ulti- 
mately published their recantations. Here is Dr. Buckland's 
[Bridgewater Treatise , vol. i. page 94) : — 
“ Discoveries which have been made since the publication of this work 
( £ Reliquiae Diluvianae ’) show that many of the animals therein described 
existed during more than one geological period preceding the catastrophe by 
which they were extirpated. Hence it seems more probable, that the event 
in question was the last of the many geological revolutions that had been 
produced by violent irruptions of water rather than the comparatively tranquil 
inundation described in the inspired narrative. * * * The large prepon- 
derance of extinct species among the animals we find in caves, and in super- 
ficial deposits of diluvium, and the non-discovery of human bones along with 
them, afford other strong reasons for referring these species to a period ante- 
rior to the creation of man.” 
And here is Sedgwick's (Geo. Sac. Proceed., vol. i. p. 313) : — 
“ Bearing upon this difficult question, there is, I think, one great negative 
conclusion now incontestably established — that the vast masses of diluvial 
gravel scattered almost over the surface of the earth do not belong to one 
violent and transitory period. It was indeed a most unwarranted conclusion, 
when we assumed the contemporaneity of all the superficial gravel on the 
earth. We saw the clearest traces of diluvial action, and we had in our 
sacred histories the record of a general deluge. On this double testimony it 
was, that we gave a unity to a vast succession of phenomena, not -one of 
which we perfectly comprehended, and under the name diluvium classed 
them altogether. * * * Having been myself a believer, and to the best of my 
power a propagator, of what I now regard as a philosophic heresy, and having 
more than once been quoted for opinions which I do not now maintain, I 
think it right, as one of my last acts, before I quit this chair, thus publicly 
to read my recantation.” 
It was impossible to study the rocks attentively without 
arriving at the conclusion that whatever might be the 
explanation of their origin and phenomena, it was certainly 
not the Deluge. The rocks could not have been deposited by 
the Deluge, as a few stoutly maintained, for they are found to 
consist of an endless series of strata, indicating different epochs, 
different climates, different predominant races. The superfi- 
cial deposits could not have been deposited by the Deluge, 
for they are manifestly of different ages have been produced 
by different causes, such as rivers, lakes and the action of the 
sea; and contain organic remains perfecly distinct* from each 
