304 Dr Fleming on the Influence of Society on the 
animals to the deluge, classifies the alluvial strata into such as 
are diluvian and such as are post-diluvian. But these organic 
remains occur, not only in the so-called diluvian clay , but in 
the acknowledged post-diluvian marl; and this flood, instead 
of consigning indiscriminately to a watery grave, all the qua- 
drupeds of Britain, selected as the objects of its destruction, 
only such as in all ages must have been most eagerly sought 
after by the huntsman, and such as his efforts would, long be- 
fore this period, have annihilated. 
The whole circumstances of the case lead apparently to the 
conclusion, that the weapons of the huntsman completed the ex- 
tinction of these animals, from the first ages the object of his 
persecution ; though we can feel no hesitation in admitting, that 
murrains, severe seasons, and local inundations, may have ac- 
celerated their ruin *. The destructive influence of these circum- 
stances, must, indeed, in all ages, have operated in checking the 
extension of particular species ; nor has man himself been ex- 
empted from their ravages. But as his resources multiply with 
the progress of society, while those animals against which he 
contends, become more exposed to his attacks, man has outlived 
these changes, along with those brute cotemporaries which have 
not been the special object of his persecution. 
The preceding remarks, offered on a very interesting depart- 
ment of the natural history of the earth, may serve to point 
out the rashness of those attempts which have been made to 
unite the speculations of geologists with the truths of Revela- 
tion. Without controversy, the works and the words of God 
must give consistent indications of his government, provided they 
be interpreted truly. The talent, sagacity, learning, and industry, 
occupied, for ages, with the Book of Revelation, have produced 
a mass of evidence, by which its moral authority has been esta- 
* Professor Link, without attempting any explanation of the manner in which 
the quadrupeds, whose remains are found in alluvial strata, have disappeared from 
off the face of the earth, maintains that we have no geological evidence for their 
destruction by a great flood, for he remarks, “ We find remains of these extinct 
species in the same beds as those enclosing bones of living species ; therefore, if 
the one set were destroyed by a universal deluge, the others must have suffered at 
the same period. — Edit. 
2 
