. Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. Smithsonian Institution; Smithsonian Institution. Archives; Discoveries in science. AMERICAN GEOLOGY DECADE OF 1830- L839. 389 almost inexplicable, have been produced at that momentous period when the "win- dows of heaven were opened, and the fountains of the great deep broken ; * * * In no way can these phenomena be so satisfactorily accounted for and explained as by admitting the brief account of the creation of the world in the first chapter of Genesis; and that there is no necessity for making the world ap
. Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. Smithsonian Institution; Smithsonian Institution. Archives; Discoveries in science. AMERICAN GEOLOGY DECADE OF 1830- L839. 389 almost inexplicable, have been produced at that momentous period when the "win- dows of heaven were opened, and the fountains of the great deep broken ; * * * In no way can these phenomena be so satisfactorily accounted for and explained as by admitting the brief account of the creation of the world in the first chapter of Genesis; and that there is no necessity for making the world appear older than its date given by Moses. : The volcanic fires of the earth are gradually becoming extinct. Thev were evi- dently far more vehement in former ages than in the present day. Therefore, we have sufficient reasons to believe that from the creation of the world to the deluge great changes must have taken place upon the earth's surface. Who can clearly decide that the flaming sword which forever shut out our first parents from Eden's delightful garden was not a livid torrent of flame issuing from the ground polluted by sin? Concerning the limestones of the coal formation along the Nepan River, he wrote: On the surface of the limestone the detritus of the deluge forms a distinct cover- ing; and, according to the opinion of some geologists, should not be considered in any way connected with the changes which have taken place in the strata beneath. But we would remark that although the beds of rounded pebbles and sand clearly demonstrate the effects of a flood, they can have no reference to the great geological catastrophe which ushered in that awful event. The depression of whole continents, the raising of the ocean's level bed, the distortion of strata previously horizontal, the elevation of mountains, and all those violent operations whereby the whole surface of this planet has been rent asunder, might have been the prelude to that overwhelming deluge, while the
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