112 HISTORY OP THE EARTH. 
we discover the effects of an ancient inundation, and the ravages 
produced apparently by a flood of waters in motion, it will be 
difficult to prove that they are to be referred to that particular 
catastrophe of which Moses has furnished us with a brief history, 
and not to some other one of those great revolutions that have 
changed the face of the earth. 
It is probable that natural science will be compelled at length 
to confess her utter ignorance on all points connected with the 
subject of revealed religion, and to acknowledge that her testi- 
mony is altogether of a negative character, that she can offer 
nothing decisive either for or against it. The facts that have 
been supposed to have a bearing upon this question, and an ab- 
stract of the conclusions drawn from them, are now to be ex- 
hibited. 
Jill the shells, of whatever age or kind, that are found far in- 
land, on the summits, or imbedded in the strata of mountains, 
were once adduced as proofs of Noah's deluge. Not one person 
held entitled to the name and character of a philosopher takes 
this view of them now. They existed, and nearly in the places 
where we find them, millions of ages before Adam was created. 
But the recent beds of sand, loam, and gravel, sometimes'envelop- 
ing the remains of various animals, that, present themselves in 
many different parts of the world, are still referred by some ge- 
ologists to the deluge, and considered as furnishing satisfactory 
evidence of the occurrence of such an event. 
They are not known to exist in North Carolina, but are of 
frequent occurrence, though generally without organic remains, 
in the Northern and Western States, and with remains imbeded, on 
the Island of Great Britain, and the Continent of Europe, and in 
the northern part at least, of the Continent of Asia. The appear- 
ance of these accumulations of loam and gravel, the nature of the 
pebbles found in them, and the circumstances under which the 
bones exist in them, (at considerable depths, and not upon the 
surface, where the bones of such animals are left, as perish by 
disease, or are killed by other species,) prove that the whole mass 
has been produced by a flood of moving waters. Nor is it a valid 
objection to this inference, that we may be unable to assign the 
cause, either proximate or remote, by which such an inundation 
may have been produced, and the waters set in motion, those cases 
being of frequent occurrence in Geology , where we are certain that 
events have taken place, whilst we are unable to specify the agent 
and method by which they have been accomplished. Some of 
the theories however that have been proposed for accounting for 
the deluge by the operation of natural causes, are entitled to a 
passing notice. 
Amongst the bones which are found imbeded in diluvium, (for 
by this name the sediment or mud of the deluge is distinguished 
from the alluvion of rivers) are those of the elephant, which have 
been dug up in all parts of the world. It is in Asiatic Russia that 
