On the relation between Holy Scriptures and some parts of Geological Science. By John Pye Smith, D.D., F.G.S. [pp. 368-394]

382 Relation between Scrzpture Geo1og~ and. [JULY
a shattered state and a violent mode of transport." This
fact together with the amazing accumulation of vegetable
matter necessary to form the vast beds of coal, and the existence of this immense formation but once in the series, are
held as conclnsive evidences that the coal measures where
the work of the deluge, and of course therefore alt the strata
that overlie them.
The hypothesis which has been set forth to account for
phenomina, in the short space of six thousand years, which
seemed to geologists of the other school to demand countless ages for their production, is this. The disruption of the
earth, incident to that command of Omnipotence which prepared a bed for the primeval sea, and caused the dry laud to
appear, furnished abundant materials for the deposits known
as the transition series of rocks. Their position at the bottom
of the stratified fbrmations, and the absence of all organic remains, are urged in proof that they were produced prior to
the creation of all animal and vegetable existence, and correspond in this respect with that first mighty disturbance to
which the forming earth was subjected, viz: the formation
of a bed for the ocean. The action of air, water, and other
agencies upon the primitive soil, furnished the debris, which
was carried into the ocean, and distributed over its bottom
by the power of currents and of tides, and thus formed the
lower division of the secondary rocks, giving evidence as
they do, at first scantily, but with constantly increasing
abundance, of the remains of "the living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly." The remainder of the strata were formed simultaneously, by the
stupendous action of the diluvial waters;-and the whole
mass then heaved up by the hand of Omnipotence, to constitute the "new earth" for the abode of man, "the earth that
then was, being destroyed," and now forming the bottom of
the sea.
Mr. Sharon Turner, in his "Sacred History ofthe World,"
suggests a modification of this theory, by supposing that the
stratified formations, from the lowest up to the highest secondary, were produced in the 1666 years from the creation of
man to the deluge, and the tertiary by the deluge itself.
Other writers of considerable ability, but no very great celebrity, have advocated the same generat views. It must
be confessed, however, that this theory has not met with
that degree of favour from scientific men which might have
been anticipated from its ingenuity, and the ability of its ad