that group to Australia,-and yet leave no thousands of feet deep, without its trace behind of such migration, by the arrest natural supplies of air and light? of any descendants of the migratory generations in Asia itself, or in any island between Asia and New Zealand?

also to be furnished daily with water and fresh litter, their cribs being cleansed, and impurities removed,though how, and whither, they could have been removed, are questions equally perplexing.

1159. Yet, if this ancient story is still to be put forward, and the people are to be required by high authority to believe that it is historically true, as if this were necessary to salvation,-as if ‘all our hopes for eternity,'' all our nearest and dearest consolations,' depended upon our believing this,-such questions as these must be asked, till the fact is recognised that they cannot be answered.

go out in person into all lands, and
gather these supplies of food, and must
know also the different kinds of food
on which the different animals subsist.
1157. But what provision could he
have made for the carnivorous ani-
mals, for the lions, tigers, leopards,
and hyænas, the eagles, vultures, kites
and hawks,—and that for more than
twelve months' consumption? How
could he have supplied the otters with
their fish, the chameleons with their
flies, the woodpeckers with their grubs,
the night-hawks with their moths?
How could the snipes and woodcocks,
that feed on worms and insects, in the
bottoms of sedgy brooks, or the hum-
ming-birds that suck the honey of the
flowers, have lived for a whole year in
the Ark? And what would happen,
when they were all let out of the Ark,
and the predaceous animals turned, we
must suppose, to seek at once their
usual food? The loss of one single
animal out of a pair would have been THE
the destruction of a whole species.

In the next chapter we shall consider some of the arguments, with which the defenders of the traditionary view endeavour to maintain their position.

1160. BISHOP WILKINS, F.R.S., disposes of some of the scientific difficulties which are raised by the Scripture story of the Deluge, as follows, Essay towards a real Character and a philo

1158. It is hardly necessary to estimate the size of the Ark, so as to compare it with that required for the reception of so many thousands of animals of all sizes, from the elephant and hippopotamus down to the shrew-sophical Language, p. 163-6 :— mouse and the humming-bird, besides half a million species of insects, and innumerable snails, together with their food for more than a year. Nor need we stop to consider how Noah and his three sons could have brought together the materials for building this huge vessel, seven times as large as the Great Britain steamship, and have built it, either with their own hands, or with the help of hired labourers, remembering with what expenditure of labour such a "Great Eastern' must have been constructed. Nor need we argue as to the way in which, day by day, during this whole year, supplies of food must have been taken round, morning and evening, by the eight human inmates, to these tens of thousands of living creatures, shut up (apparently) without light or air, who must have needed

'Tis agreed upon as most probable that the lower story [of the Ark] was assigned to contain all the species of beasts, the middle story for their food, and the upper story in one part of it for the birds and their food, and the other part for Noah, his family and utensils.

As for the Morse, Seal, Turtle or described to be such kind of animals as can Sea Tortoise, Crocodile, &c., these are usually abide in the water; and therefore I have not taken them into the Ark; though, if that were them, as will shortly appear. The serpentine necessary, there would be room enough for kind, Snake, Viper, Slowworm, Lizard, Frog, Toad, might have sufficient space for their drain or sink of the Ark (!), which was proreception and for their nourishment in the bably three or four feet under the floor for the standings of the beasts. lesser beasts, Rat, Mouse, Mole, as likewise for the several species of Insects, there can be no reason to question but that these may find sufficient room in several parts of the Ark, without having any particular stalls ap

pointed for them.

As for those

The carnivorous animals upon a fair calculation are supposed equivalent, as to the bulk

of their bodies and their food, unto twentyseven Wolves: but, for greater certainty, let

* Ark, 550 ft. x 93 ft. x 55 ft.; Great Britain, them be supposed equal to thirty Wolves; and 289 ft. x 41 ft. x 33 ft.

let it be further supposed that six Wolves will

From what hath been said it may appear that the measure and capacity of the Ark, which some atheistical, irreligious, men make use of, as an argument against [the historical credibility of portions of] the Scriptures, ought rather to be esteemed a most rational confirmation of the truth and divine authority of it.

every day devour a whole Sheep. According | increased with the advance of geoto this computation, five Sheep must be allotted to be devoured for food each day of the graphical science. But then, quite in year, which amounts in the whole to 1,825. the spirit of Dean GRAVES, and other Upon these suppositions, there must be con- 'reconcilers,' ancient and modern, venient room in the lower story of the Ark to Bishop WILKINS concludes with the contain the fore-mentioned sorts of beasts, which were to be preserved for the propaga- usual stereotyped form of assertion, tion of their kinds, besides 1,825 Sheep, which p.168:were to be taken in as food for the rapacious beasts. And, though there might seem no just ground of exception, if these beasts should be stowed close together, as is now usual in ships, when they are to be transported for a long voyage, yet I shall not take any such advantage, but afford them such fair stalls or cabins, as may be abundantly sufficient for them in any kind of posture, either standing, or lying, or turning themselves, -as likewise to receive all the dung that should proceed from them for a whole year, [so as (we may suppose) to save Noah and his family from the neces-gions, in the Ark, as JOSEPHUS supposeth; sity of cleansing daily the stalls. Alas! for the boa-constrictors and others of the serpentine kind, snakes, vipers, slowworms, lizards, frogs, toads,' condemned to live in the 'drain or sink' containing the whole year's drainage!]

=

1163. These, again, are WILLET'S views, Hex. in Gen. p.80.

(i) There were neither four rooms, or re

(ii) Nor yet five, as ORIGEN thinketh, the first for the dung of the cattle, the second for their food, the third for the cruel and savage beasts, the fourth for the tame and gentle, the fifth for man;

(iv) Neither, beside the three partitions in the Ark was there a bottom beside to receive

the filth of the Ark, as PERERIUS; for conveyances might be made otherwise in the side of the Ark for that use, and it would have been a great annoyance to have kept the dung of the cattle one whole year in the Ark.

All these opinions are repugnant to the text, which presented but three ranks, the lower, second, and third.

(iii) Neither were there, beside the three regions in the Ark, certain cabins without, in 1161. The learned Bishop then esti- the side of the Ark, for the beasts called ammates that 1 Beeve-7 Sheep, and that phibia, that live both in the waters and upon the earth, as the crocodile, sea-calf, and such the total number of hay-eating animals like, as HUGO thinketh; for all the beasts =92 Beeves,-'but,' he says, 'to came into the Ark, which were preserved; prevent all kind of cavil,' say 100 Beeves=700 Sheep,-and those eating 'roots, fruits, and insects,'=21 Sheep. The carnivorous animals are reckoned, as we have seen, 'for greater certainty,' as 30 Wolves 30 Sheep. Thus the room required for all the animals preserved would be equivalent to 751 Sheep, while more than twice as much room would be required for the 1,825 Sheep alone, to be taken in merely as food for the carnivorous animals. And the food for these Sheep again would require nearly twice as much room as the food of the herbivorous animals; or rather, as the Bishop observes, only half this extra quantity of food would be required, as Noah and his sons would be butchering five Sheep daily, cutting them up, and distributing the pieces to the representatives of the thirty Wolves.'

1162. He has forgotten, however, to provide insects' for the swallows and ant-eaters. And HUGH MILLER, Test. of the Rocks, p.326, reckons that there were 1,658 known species of mammalia, 6,266 of birds, 642 of reptiles, and 550,000 of insects,-which numbers, of course, are being daily

1164. As to the use of these chambers, WILLET writes:

(i) Some make the lowest for the dung, the next for the food, the third for the cattle;

(ii) Some, the first for the beasts, the second room for their food, which might be put down

into their cabins with ease;

(iii) Some will not have the cruel and tame beasts together, but make two several regions for them;

(iv) Some do place men and beasts together

in the upper and third room, dividing it into three parts, having both the ends for the beasts, the middle for the men;

(v) Some do place the beasts together in the lowest,-which they make also the drain of the ship,—their food in the middle, and men together with the fowls in the uppermost;

(vi) It is most likely that the food and provender was in the lowest room, and the beasts in the middle, because of the fresh and more open air, as also for the better conveying of their dung by the sides of the Ark into the

water.

Otherwise, if the cattle were in the lowest room, we must be forced, contrary to the text, to make a fourth place in the bottom, to be as the sink and drain of the Ark. Neither was the door five cubits

from the bottom, as PERERIUS: but it was

1165. If it be said that the opinions advanced by WILLET, A.D.1605, and Bishop WILKINS, F.R.S., A.D.1668, are now somewhat antiquated, yet the same views-the same in substance, though varying in details-have been maintained within the last few years, and are still maintained, by dignified clergy of the Church of England, as e.g. by the Rev. Sir G. MACGREGOR, Bart., Rector of Swallow, and Rural Dean, in his Notes on Genesis, designed principally for the Use of Students in Divinity, 1853, who writes thus, p.155:

God has

From this it follows that no genus, at least,if not no species,-was lost in the Flood. Therefore those fossil land animals of extinct species, which we discover in the strata, must have existed anterior to the Adamic economy; and, therefore, the strata which contain them must have done so likewise. often made the beasts subservient to man's purposes. At Creation, they came to Adam to exercise his powers of language. Here they came to Noah, to be included in the Ark. This was as much a miracle as any of the foregoing, when the animals all came to Noah, two of every sort, for preservation. It does not seem likely that this included animal food, for animal food would not keep well in the Ark. Nor is it implied that more than two animals of a kind were in the Ark; there

fore it was probably farinaceous or vegetable food. If so, this would agree with the notion that the carnivorous animals were originally created herbivorous, and were, in fact, omnivorous.

in order to keep the animals alive by
natural means.
miracle for their preservation at all,
If we are to introduce
why not let each animal go to sleep
where the Flood found it, and be pre-
served in a state of torpor under the
water? The omnipotence of the
imagination is as competent to the one
task as to the other.

1167. Some, again, have suggested, that it may have sufficed that only a very few primary types of animals should be preserved in the Ark, from which the numerous existing species have all been developed, -so that, for instance, from one single pair of wolves, preserved from the Flood, may have been derived all the different varieties of the canine tribe, dogs, wolves, hyænas, foxes, jackals, &c. But, without disputing the possibility of such development, yet, at all events, a great length of time would have been required for it. Whereas on the most ancient monuments of Egypt, of older date than the time of Abraham, we find depicted the wolf, hyæna. jackal, greyhound, bloodhound, turnspit, common dog, of 4,000 years ago, just exactly the same animals as now. See fig. 236-250, in Types of Mankind.

1168. WILLET writes on this point as follows, Hexap. in Gen. p.87:

Neither came there of every kind of living thing, for these are excepted:

(i) All that liveth in the water,-either wholly, or partly in the water, partly in the land; for such creatures only came which moved upon the earth;

1166. The 'Rural Dean,' it will be seen, purposes to relieve his 'Students in Divinity,'—that is, the clergy of the next generation,-from the difficulty (ii) Such creatures as come by corruption, of taking account of the thirty not by generation (!), as flies, of the water,Wolves,' for whom Bishop WILKINS nets, of horse-flesh,-the scorpion, of the crab worms, of dung,-bees, of bullock's flesh,-horprovides so carefully. Others, again, or crevice [?' cray fish,' or else écrévisse, crab,'] dispose of the whole question in another-moths, of putrefied herbs, and certain small and much more summary way: e.g. the Ecclesiastic can still, in this age, ask seriously

What difficulty can there be in accepting the hypothesis, which seems so likely, that these animals were further kept during their sojourn

for those creatures only entered, which inworms, of the corruption of wood and corn; crease by generation;

(iii) Such creatures are excepted, which .. as the mule. are of a mixed kind,

the words of the late HUGH MILLER, 1169. It may be well to quote here Testimony of the Rocks, p.335-339, who, however, while himself proving the impossibility of a general Flood, attempts, it will be seen, to show that Noah's Flood was not universal, but partial,—a point which we shall con

in the Ark in a state of torpor ?—
though in G.vi.21 Noah is commanded
to take unto him of all food that is
eaten,' for the beasts, as well as for
himself, and though, on that hypothesis,
the building of the Ark at all would
have been unnecessary. It is clear
that the writers describe it as built, sider presently.

CC

spot from the polar regions, the torrid zone, and all other climates of Asia, Africa, Europe, and America, Australia, and the thousands of islands,-their preservation and provision, and the final disposal of them,-without bringing up the idea of miracles more stupendous than any that are recorded in Scripture.' 'The great, decisive miracle of Christianity,' he adds, the resurrection of the Lord Jesus,-sinks down before it.'

The Deluge was an event of the existing | the idea of their being brought into one small creation. Had it been universal, it would either have broken up all the diverse centres [of existing creation], and substituted one great general centre instead,-that in which the Ark rested; or else, at an enormous expense of miracle, all the animals, preserved by natural means by Noah, would have had to be returned by supernatural means to the regions, whence by means equally supernatural they had been brought. The sloths and armadilloes,-little fitted by nature for And let us remember that the preservation long journeys, would have required to be and re-distribution of the land animals would ferried across the Atlantic [after the Flood] demand but a portion of the amount of to the regions [of South America, from miracle, absolutely necessary for the prewhence also they had been brought before the servation, in the circumstances, of the entire Flood], the kangaroo and wombat, to the fauna of the globe. The fresh-water fishes, insulated continent [of Australia], and the molluscs, crustacea, and zoophytes, could be birds of New Zealand, including its heavy-kept alive in a universal deluge only by miraflying quails and its wingless wood-hen, to culous means. It has been urged that, though the remote islands of the Pacific. the living individuals were to perish, their spawn might be preserved by natural means. It must be remembered, however, that, even in the case of some fishes whose proper habitat is the sea, such as the salmon, it is essential for the maintenance of the species that the spawn should be deposited in fresh water, nay, in running fresh water; for in still water, however pure, the eggs in a few weeks addle and die. The eggs of the common trout also require to be deposited in running fresh water; while other fresh-water fishes, such as the tench and carp, are reared most successfully in still, reedy, ponds. The fresh-water fishes spawn, too, at very different seasons, and the young remain for very different periods in the egg. The perch and grayling spawn in the end of April or the beginning of May,-the tench and roach about the middle of June,the common trout and powan in October and November. And, while some fishes, such as the salmon, remain from ninety to a hundred days in the egg, others, such as the trout, are extruded in five weeks. Without special miracle, the spawn of all the fresh-water fishes could not be in existence, as such, at one and the same time; without special miracle, it could not maintain its vitality in a universal deluge; and without special miracle, even did it maintain its vitality, it could not remain in the egg-state throughout an entire twelvemonth, but would be developed into fishes, of the several species to which it belonged, at very different periods. Farther, in a universal deluge, without special miracle, vast numbers of even the salt-water animals could not fail to be extirpated.

Nor will it avail aught to urge, with certain assertors of a universal deluge, that during the cataclysm, sea and land changed their places, and that what is now land had formed the bottom of the antediluvian ocean, and, vice versa, what is now sea had been the land on which the first human inhabitants of the earth increased and multiplied. No geologist, who knows how very various the ages of the several table-lands and mountainchains in reality are, could acquiesce in such an hypothesis. Our own Scottish shores, if to the term of the existing we add that of the ancient coast-line,-must have formed the limits of the land, from a time vastly more remote than the age of the Deluge.

But even supposing, for the argument's sake, the hypothesis recognised as admissible, what, in the circumstances of the case, would be gained by the admission? A continuous tract of land would have stretched,-when all the oceans were continents and all the continents oceans,--between the South American and Asiatic coasts. And it is just possible that, during the hundred and twenty years (?), in which the Ark was in building, a pair of sloths might have crept by inches across this continuous tract to where the great vessel stood. But after the Flood had subsided, and the change in sea and land had taken place, there would remain for them no longer a roadway; and so, though their journey outward might, in all save the impulse which led to it, have been altogether a natural one, their voyage homewards could not be other than miraculous. . . Even supposing it possible that animals, such as the red deer and the native ox, might have swam across the Straits of Dover or the Irish Channel, to graze anew over deposits, in which the bones and horns of their remote ancestors had been entombed long ages before, the feat would have been surely far beyond the power of such feeble natives of the soil, as the mole, the hedge-hog, the shrew, the dormouse, and the field-vole.

Dr. PYE SMITH, in dealing with this subject, has emphatically said, that, all land animals having their geographical regions, to which their constitutional natures are congenial, many of them being unable to live in any other situation, we cannot represent to ourselves

Nor would the vegetable kingdom fare greatly better than the animal one. Of the one hundred thousand species of known plants, few indeed would survive submersion for a twelvemonth; nor would the seeds of most of the others fare better than the plants themselves. There are certain hardy seeds, that in favourable circumstances maintain their vitality for ages: and there are others, strongly encased in water-tight shells or skins, that have floated across oceans to germinate in distant islands. But such, as every florist knows, is not the general character of seeds: and, not until after many unsuccessful attempts, and many expedients had been resorted to, have the more delicate kinds been brought