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

670 A FEW KEHARKS It is easy to settle such speculations by the i-eflection — " It was the wiU of Him who is Almighty ;"" but as in most cases we see that secondary causes are employed to work out His will, we may imagine that the extraordinary prolongation of man's existence was effected by such means. Connected with these questions respecting the additional quantity of water is the reflection that the amount must have been very great. This may be placed in another light. Sir John Herschel says,* " On a globe of sixteen inches in diameter such a mountain (five miles high) would be represented by a pro- tuberance of no more than one hundredth part of an inch, which is about the thickness of ordinary drawing paper. Now as there is no entire continent, or even any very extensive tract of land, known, whose general elevation above the sea is any thing like half this quantity, it follows, that if we would con- struct a correct model of our earth, with its seas, continents, and mountains, on a globe sixteen inches in diameter, the whole of the land, with the exception of a few prominent points and ridges, must be comprised on it within the thickness of thin writing paper ; and the highest liills would be represented by the smallest visible grains of sand."— Such being the case, a coat of varnish would represent the diluvial addition of water and how small an addition to the mass does it appear ! Let us now refer briefly to the recorded account of theFlood. Without recapitulating dates and events, I will at once advert to the ark : — an immense vessel,-]- constructed of very durable wood, J and well stored with vegetable provision for all that it contained. Some cavillers have objected to the heterogeneous mixture of animals embarked ; on the ground that they could not have been assembled ; and would have destroyed one ano- ther. We may reply : He who made, could surely manage. But, without direct miraculous interposition (though we should never forget that man is a miracle, that this v^orld is a miracle, that the universe is a miracle), imagine the effect that would be produced on the animal creation by the approach of such a war * Treatise on Astronomy, Cabinet Cyclopedia, page 22. t Sharon Turner, Harcourt, Burnett, &c. + Some of our English ships have lasted more than a centurv.