Narrative of the surveying voyages of his majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle (vol.2): between the years 1826 and 1836 : describing their examination of the southern shores of South America, and the Beagles's circumnavigation of the globe

OM THE DEHIGK. 663 different probably from its condition before the flood, as may be concluded from the inferior duration of human Hfe. The 2d and 3d verses of chap. ii. recall to mind the wonder- ful fact that the seventh day has been a marked division of time from the earliest period of historical record.* It is now well known that all nations, and almost all tribes of the human race, preserve traditions of a great flood in which nearly all men were destroyed :f and it is also established as a fact, that nearly all parts of the earth, hitherto examined, bear witness to their having been at some time covered by the ocean. Instead of ascribing these effects to the universal deluge, many geologists say that the earth is in a continual, though gradual state of change ; that in consequence of this general mobility, places now far above the sea were once be- neath it ; that districts, or countries, may have been inundated in one quarter, and other regions elsewhere, but that an uni- versal deluge never could have happened. This is implied plainly enough, if not asserted, in several geological works. In the Beagle's examination of the southern parts of South America, I had opportunities of observing immense tracts of land composed, solely, of fossil shells, bones, and an earth which looked like dried sandy mud : — extensive ranges of country where no solid rock could be found, only rolled or shingle stones, embedded to a great depth in earth, exactly like that described above ; — and a wide district, at least fifty miles across, covered with lava of which the surface was nearly horizontal. (San Jose, San Julian, Santa Cruz.) I brought to England many specimens of these shells, which, although taken from within a few feet of the surface of the land, were found to have been pressed together, crushed, and penetrated by mud, in a manner that never could have been caused by the weight of earth then lying above them, because, though solid, it could neither have mashed the shells, nor worked into their inmost recesses. It seems evident to me • We find it ordained in Gen. ii. 3; alluded to by Noah, chap. viii. ver. 10, 12 ; and afterwards observed regularly, down to the present time. t. Sharon Turner, Harcourt, &c.