initial commit of ebook 25975HEADmain

45 files changed, 4280 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6833f05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+* text=auto
+*.txt text
+*.md text
diff --git a/25975-8.txt b/25975-8.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c491b9a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/25975-8.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,1314 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Deluge in the Light of Modern Science, by 
+William Denton
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Deluge in the Light of Modern Science
+       A Discourse
+
+Author: William Denton
+
+Release Date: July 6, 2008 [EBook #25975]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DELUGE IN LIGHT OF MODERN SCIENCE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Bryan Ness, Stephen Blundell and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from scans of public domain works at the
+University of Michigan's Making of America collection.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+         THE DELUGE
+
+           IN THE
+
+  LIGHT OF MODERN SCIENCE.
+
+
+        A Discourse.
+
+
+             BY
+       WILLIAM DENTON.
+
+
+     WELLESLEY, MASS.:
+ DENTON PUBLISHING COMPANY.
+           1882.
+
+
+
+
+THE DELUGE IN THE LIGHT OF MODERN SCIENCE.
+
+
+If the Bible is God's book, we ought to know it. If the Creator of the
+universe has spoken to man, how important that we should listen to his
+voice and obey his instructions! On the other hand, if the Bible is not
+God's book, we ought to know it. Why should we go through the world with
+a lie in our right hand, dupes of the ignorant men who preceded us? It
+can never be for our soul's benefit to cherish a falsehood.
+
+Science is, perhaps, the best test that we can apply to decide the
+question. Science is really a knowledge of what Nature has done, and is
+doing; and since the upholders of the divinity of the Bible believe that
+it proceeded from the Author of nature, if their faith is true, it
+cannot possibly disagree with what science teaches.
+
+Science is a fiery furnace, that has consumed a thousand delusions, and
+must consume all that remain. We cast into it astrology and alchemy, and
+their ashes barely remain to tell of their existence. Old notions of the
+earth and heavens went in, and vanished as their dupes gazed upon them.
+Old religions, old gods, have become as the incense that was burned
+before their altars.
+
+I purpose to try the Bible in its searching fire. Fear not, my brother:
+it can but burn the straw and stubble; if gold, it will shine as bright
+after the fiery ordeal as before, and reflect as perfectly the image of
+truth.
+
+The Bible abounds with marvellous stories,--stories that we should at
+once reject from their intrinsic improbability, not to say
+impossibility, if we should find them in any other book. But, among all
+the stories, there is none that equals the account of the deluge, as
+given in the sixth, seventh, and eighth chapters of Genesis. It towers
+above the rest as Mount Washington does above the New-England hills;
+and, as travellers delight to climb the loftiest peaks, I suppose that
+many would be pleased to examine this lofty story, and see how the world
+of truth and actuality looks from its summit.
+
+According to the account, in less than two thousand years after God had
+created all things, and pronounced them very good, he became thoroughly
+dissatisfied with every living thing, and determined to destroy them
+with the earth. He thus expresses himself: "I will destroy man, whom I
+have created, from the face of the earth,--both man and beast, and the
+creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I
+have made them." Again he says to Noah, "The end of all flesh is come
+before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them, and
+behold I will destroy them with the earth."
+
+Why should the beasts, birds, and creeping things be destroyed? What had
+the larks, the doves, and the bob-o-links done? What had the squirrels
+and the tortoises been guilty of, that they should be destroyed?
+
+He proceeds to inform Noah how he will do this: "And behold I, even I,
+do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein
+is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the
+earth shall die." And we are subsequently informed that "every thing
+that was in the dry land died." But why not every thing in the sea? Were
+the dogs sinners, and the dog-fish saints? Had the sheep been more
+guilty than the sharks? Had the pigeons become utterly corrupt, and the
+pikes remained perfectly innocent? It may be, that the apparent
+impossibility of drowning them by a flood suggested to the writer of the
+story the necessity of saving them alive.
+
+But Noah was righteous; and God determined to save him and his family,
+eight persons, and by their instrumentality to save alive animals
+sufficient to stock the world again after its destruction.
+
+To do this, Noah was commanded to build an ark, three hundred cubits
+long, fifty broad, and thirty high. It was to be made with three
+stories, and furnished with one door, and one window a cubit wide. Into
+this ark were to be taken two of every sort of living thing, and of
+clean beasts and of birds seven of every sort, male and female, and food
+sufficient for them all.
+
+There are differences of opinion about the length of the cubit: most
+probably it was about eighteen inches; but taking it at twenty-two
+inches, the largest estimate that I believe theologians have made, the
+ark was then five hundred and fifty feet long, ninety-one feet eight
+inches broad, and fifty-five feet high. Leaving space for the floors,
+which would need to be very strong, each story was about seventeen feet
+high; and the total cubical contents of the ark were about one hundred
+and two thousand cubic yards. Scott, in his commentary, makes it as
+small as sixty-nine thousand one hundred and twenty yards; but the
+necessity for room was not as well understood in his day. Each floor of
+the ark contained five thousand six hundred and one square yards, and
+the three floors sixteen thousand eight hundred and three square yards,
+the total standing-room of the ark.
+
+Into this were to be taken fourteen of each kind of fowl of the air or
+bird. How many kinds or species of birds are there? When Adam Clarke
+wrote his commentary, two thousand three hundred and seventy-two species
+had been recognized. Ornithology was then but in its infancy, and man's
+knowledge of living forms was very limited. Lesson, according to Hugh
+Miller, enumerates the birds at six thousand two hundred and sixty-six
+species; Gray, in his "Genera of Birds," estimates the number on the
+globe at eight thousand. Let us not crowd Noah, but take the six
+thousand two hundred and sixty-six species of Lesson. Fourteen of each
+of these would give us eighty-seven thousand seven hundred and
+twenty-four birds,--from the humming-bird, the little flying jewel, to
+the ostrich that fans the heated air of the desert,--or over five for
+every yard of standing-room in the ark. If spaces were left for the
+attendants to pass among them, to attend to the supply of their daily
+wants, the birds alone would crowd the ark.
+
+But, beside the birds, there were to be taken into the ark two of every
+sort of unclean beast and fourteen of every sort of clean beast. The
+most recent zoölogical authorities enumerate two thousand and
+sixty-seven species of mammals, or, as they are commonly called, beasts.
+Of cetacea, or whale-like mammals, sixty-five; ruminantia, or
+cud-chewers, one hundred and seventy-seven; pachydermata, or
+thick-skinned mammals, such as the horse, hog, and elephant, forty-one;
+edentata, like the sloth and ant-eater, thirty-five; rodentia, or
+gnawers, such as the rat, squirrel, and beaver, six hundred and
+seventeen; carnivora, or flesh-eaters, four hundred and forty-six;
+cheiroptera, or bats, three hundred and twenty-eight; quadrumana, or
+monkeys, two hundred and twenty-one; and marsupialia, or pouched
+mammals, like the opossum and kangaroo, one hundred and thirty-seven. If
+we leave out the cetacea, that live in the water, and the cud-chewers,
+which are the clean beasts, we have one thousand eight hundred and
+twenty-five species; and male and female of these, a total of three
+thousand six hundred and fifty.
+
+But, besides these, there were to be taken into the ark fourteen of
+every kind of clean beast. And what are clean beasts? The scriptural
+answer is, animals that divide the hoof and chew the cud; and of these
+at least one hundred and seventy-seven species are known. Fourteen of
+each of these added, make a total of six thousand one hundred and
+twenty-eight mammals, from the mouse to the elephant. These beasts could
+not be piled one upon another like cord-wood; they could not be
+promiscuously crowded together. The sheep would need careful protection
+from the lions, tigers, and wolves; the elephant and other ponderous
+beasts would require stalls of great thickness; much room would be
+required to enable them to obtain needful exercise, and for the
+attendants to supply them with food and water; and a vessel of the size
+of the ark would be taxed to provide for these beasts alone; and to
+crowd in, and preserve alive, beasts and birds, was an absolute
+impossibility.
+
+But there are of reptiles six hundred and fifty-seven species; and Noah
+was to take into the ark two of every sort of creeping thing. Two
+hundred of these reptiles are, however, aquatic: hence water would not
+seriously affect them; but crocodiles, lizards, iguanas, tree-frogs,
+horned frogs, thunder-snakes, chicken-snakes, brittlesnakes,
+rattlesnakes, copperheads, asps, cobras de capello, whose bite is
+certain death, and a host of others, must be provided for. It would not
+do to allow these disagreeable individuals to crawl about the ark; and
+nine hundred and fourteen of them would require considerable space,
+whether they could obtain it or not.
+
+By this time, the ark is doubly crowded; but its living cargo is not yet
+completed. A dense cloud of insects, and a vast army destitute of wings,
+make their appearance, and clamor for admission. The number of
+articulates that must have been provided for is estimated at seven
+hundred and fifty thousand species,--from the butterflies of Brazil,
+fourteen inches from the tip of one wing to the tip of the other, to the
+almost invisible gnat, that dances in the summer's beam. Ants, beetles,
+flies, bugs, fleas, mosquitoes, wasps, bees, moths, butterflies,
+spiders, scorpions, grasshoppers, locusts, myriapods, canker-worms,
+wriggling, crawling, creeping, flying, male and female, here they come,
+and all must be provided for.
+
+Nor are these the last. The air-breathing land-snails, of which we know
+four thousand six hundred species, could never have survived a twelve
+months' soaking; and they must therefore be cared for. The nine thousand
+two hundred of these add no little to the discomfort of the
+trebly-crowded ark.
+
+Now let the flood come: all are lodged in the ark of safety, and are
+ready for a year's voyage. But we forget: the ark has not yet received
+one-half of its cargo. The command given unto Noah was, "Take thou unto
+thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee; and it
+shall be for food for thee and for them;" and we are expressly told that
+"according to all that God commanded Noah, so did he."
+
+Food for how long? The flood began in the "sixth hundredth year of
+Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month."
+Noah, his family, and the animals, went in seven days before this time,
+and left the ark the six hundred and first year of Noah's life, the
+second month, and the twenty-seventh day of the month. They were
+therefore in the ark for one year and seventeen days.
+
+What a quantity of hay would be required, the material most easily
+obtained! An elephant eats four hundred pounds of hay in twenty-four
+hours. Since there are two species of elephants, the African and the
+Indian, there must have been four elephants in the ark; and, supposing
+them to live upon hay, they would require three hundred tons. There are
+at least seven species of the rhinoceros; and fourteen of these, at
+seventy-five tons each, would consume no less than one thousand and
+fifty tons. The two thousand four hundred and seventy-eight clean
+beasts,--oxen, elk, giraffes, camels, deer, antelope, sheep, goats, with
+the horses, zebras, asses, hippopotami, rodents, and marsupials--could
+not have required less than four thousand five hundred tons; making a
+total of five thousand eight hundred and fifty tons. A ton of hay
+occupies about eighteen cubic yards; and the quantity of hay required
+would fill a hundred and five thousand three hundred cubic yards of
+space, or more than the entire capacity of the ark.
+
+If these animals were fed on other substances than hay, the extra
+difficulty of obtaining and preserving those substances would
+counterbalance any advantage that might be gained by the economy of
+space.
+
+A vast quantity of grain would be necessary for thousands of birds,
+rodents, marsupials, and other animals; and large granaries would be
+required for its storage.
+
+What flesh would be needed for the lions, tigers, leopards, ounces,
+wild-cats, wolves, bears, hyenas, jackals, dogs, and foxes, martens,
+weasels, eagles, condors, vultures, buzzards, falcons, hawks, kites,
+owls, as well as crocodiles and serpents! Not one but would eat its
+weight in a month, and some much more. A full-grown lion eats fifteen
+pounds of flesh in a day: there are two species of lions; and the four
+would eat twenty-two thousand pounds in a year. There would be, at
+least, three thousand animals feeding upon flesh; and, if we calculate
+that they averaged two pounds of flesh a day, this would give a total of
+more than two million and a quarter pounds of flesh to be stored up and
+distributed. And since dried, salted, or smoked meat would not answer,
+this flesh must have been taken into the ark alive. It would be equal to
+more than thirty thousand sheep at seventy-five pounds each; a great
+addition to the original cargo, and necessitating an extra quantity of
+hay for their food, till their turn came to be eaten.
+
+Fish would be required for the otters, minks, pelicans, of which there
+are eight species, and must therefore have been fifty-six individuals in
+the ark; one hundred and five gulls, for there are fifteen species; one
+hundred and twelve cormorants, forty-nine gannets, one hundred and forty
+terns, two hundred and eighty-seven kingfishers, beside storks, herons,
+spoonbills, penguins, albatrosses, and a host of others; mollusks for
+the oyster-catcher, turnstone, and other birds.
+
+The fish could not be preserved after death in any way to answer for
+food, and must therefore have been alive: large tanks for the purpose of
+keeping them would take up considerable of the ark's space. The water in
+such tanks would soon become unfitted for the respiration of the fish,
+and there must have been some provision, by air-pumps or otherwise, for
+charging the water with the air essential to their existence.
+
+Many animals live upon insects; and this must have been the most
+difficult part of the provision to procure. There are nineteen species
+of goatsuckers; and there must have been in the ark two hundred and
+sixty-six individuals. These birds feed upon flies, moths, beetles, and
+other insects. What an innumerable multitude must have been provided for
+the goatsuckers alone! But there are a hundred and thirty-seven species
+of fly-catchers; and Noah must have had a fly-catcher family of nineteen
+hundred and eighteen individuals to supply with appropriate food. There
+are thirty-seven species of bee-eaters; and there must have been five
+hundred and eighteen of these birds to supply with bees. A very large
+apiary would be required to supply their needs. But, beside these,
+insects for swallows, swifts, martins, shrikes, thrushes, orioles,
+sparrows, the beautiful trogans and jacamars, moles, shrews, hedgehogs,
+and a multitude of others, too numerous to mention, but not too numerous
+to eat. Ants, also, for the ant-eaters of America, the aard-vark of
+Africa, and the pangolin of Asia. The great ant-eater of South America
+is an animal sometimes measuring eight feet in length. It lives
+exclusively on ants, which it procures by tearing open their hills with
+its hooked claws, and then drawing its long tongue, which is covered
+with glutinous saliva, over the swarms which rush out to defend their
+dwelling. Many bushels of ants would be needed for the pair of
+ant-eaters before the ark landed on Ararat. How were all the insects
+caught, and kept for the use of all these animals for more than a year?
+A hundred men could not catch a sufficient number in six months. And, if
+caught, how could they be preserved, together with the original stock of
+insects necessary to supply the world after the deluge? Some insects eat
+only bark; others, resinous secretions, the pith, solid wood, leaves,
+sap in the veins, as the aphid, flowers, pollen, and honey. Wood, bark,
+resin, and honey might have been supplied; but how could green leaves,
+sap, flowers and pollen, be furnished to those insects absolutely
+requiring them for existence? Thirty species of insects feed on the
+nettle, but not one of them could live on dried nettles. Rösel
+calculates that two hundred species subsist on the oak; but the oak must
+be in a growing condition to supply them with food. In no other way,
+then, could the insects have been preserved alive than by large
+green-houses, the heat so applied as to suit the plants of both
+temperate and tropical climates, and the insects so distributed among
+them, that each could obtain its appropriate nourishment.
+
+Fruit would be necessary for the four hundred and forty-two monkeys, for
+the plantain-eaters, the fruit-pigeons of the Spice Islands that feed on
+nutmegs, for the toucans and the flocks of parrots, parroquets,
+cockatoos, and other fruit-eating birds. As they did not know how to can
+fruit in those days, and dried fruit would be altogether unsuitable,
+there must have been a large green-house for raising all manner of fruit
+necessary for the frugivorous multitude.
+
+_How were the various animals obtained?_ The command given to Noah was,
+"Two of every sort shalt thou _bring_ into the ark."
+
+Animals, as is now well known, belong to limited centres, outside of
+which they are never found in a natural state; and naturalists know that
+these centres were established ages before the time when the deluge is
+supposed to have occurred.
+
+Thus, Hugh Miller, in his "Testimony of the Rocks," says, "We now know
+that every great continent has its own peculiar fauna; that the original
+centres of distribution must have been, not one, but many; further, that
+the areas or circles around these centres must have been occupied by
+their pristine animals in ages long anterior to that of the Noachian
+Deluge; nay, that in even the latter geologic ages they were preceded in
+them by animals of the same general type. There are fourteen such areas,
+or provinces, enumerated by the later naturalists;" and Cuvier, quoted
+by Miller, says, "The great continents contain species peculiar to each;
+insomuch, that whenever large countries, of this description, have been
+discovered, which their situation had kept isolated from the rest of the
+world, the class of quadrupeds which they contained has been found
+extremely different from any that had existed elsewhere. Thus, when the
+Spaniards first penetrated into South America, they did not find a
+single species of quadruped the same as any of Europe, Asia, or Africa."
+
+The white bear is never found except in the arctic regions; the great
+grizzly bear is only found in the neighborhood of the Rocky Mountains.
+Nearly all the species of mammals found in Australia are confined to
+that country, as the wingless birds of New Zealand are confined to that,
+and the sloth, armadillo, and other animals, to South America.
+
+A journey to the polar regions would be necessary to obtain the white
+bear, the musk-ox, of which seven would be required, since it is a clean
+beast; seven reindeer, likewise; the white fox, the polar hare, the
+lemming, and seven of each species of cormorant, gannet, penguin,
+petrel, and gull, some of which are as large as eagles, as well as
+mergansers, geese, and ducks, certain species of which are only found in
+the frigid zone. Noah or his agents must have discovered Greenland and
+North America thousands of years before Columbus was born: they must
+have preceded Behring, Parry, Ross, Kane, and Hayes in exploring the
+Arctic regions. They searched the ice-floes and numerous islands of the
+Arctic seas, snow-shoed, over the frozen _tundras_ of Siberia, to be
+certain that no living thing escaped them; then, after catching and
+caging all the animals, conveyed them, with all manner of food necessary
+for their sustenance, together with ice to temper the heat of the
+climate to which they were for more than a year to be exposed, returned
+to the nearest port, and, after a toilsome journey from the sea-coast to
+Armenia, arrived at their destination. How many of these animals would
+survive the journey? and, of those that did, how many would survive the
+change of climate and habits?
+
+Another party must have visited temperate America; traversed New England
+in its length and breadth, forded wide streams, made their way through
+unbroken wildernesses, traversed the Great Lakes, roamed over the Rocky
+Mountains, and secured the black bear, cinnamon bear, wapiti or Canadian
+stag, the moose, American deer, antelope, mountain sheep, buffalo,
+opossum, rattlesnake, copperhead, and an innumerable multitude of other
+animals--insects birds, reptiles, and mammals, that are only to be found
+in the temperate regions of America.
+
+A voyage to South America must have been made to obtain tapirs, pumas,
+peccaries, sloths, ant-eaters, armadillos, fourteen each of the llama,
+alpaca, and vicuna, beside monkeys, birds, and insects innumerable. A
+vessel nearly as large as "The Great Eastern" must have been employed,
+or a number of smaller ones, to accommodate the collectors, the animals,
+and food for a voyage across the Atlantic. There must have been, at
+least, a thousand men, wandering through the woods of Brazil, along the
+valley of the Amazon, the Orinoco, and the La Plata; paddling up the
+streams, scaling the mountains, roaming over the pampas, climbing the
+tall trees, turning over every stone and log, and exploring every nook,
+to discover the snails, bugs, insects, worms, reptiles, and other
+animals indigenous to South America, from the Isthmus to
+Tierra-del-fuego.
+
+There must have been obtained four elephants, for there are two species,
+the Asiatic and the Indian; fourteen rhinoceroses, one of which is found
+only in South Africa, another in the island of Java, and a third in
+Sumatra; two hippopotami, and possibly four, for some authorities say
+there are two species. Fourteen giraffes, since they are clean beasts,
+must have been caught and driven from Central Africa (many more, indeed,
+must have been caught, that the required number might reach the ark and
+be preserved); twenty-eight camels, two hundred and eighty oxen (for
+there are twenty species, and they are clean); and no less than thirteen
+hundred and eighty-six deer and antelope, of which there are ninety-nine
+species recognized: these to be collected in various parts of Europe,
+Asia, Northern and Southern Africa, and America.
+
+New Zealand must have been visited to obtain its wingless birds;
+Mauritius for its dodo, then living; Australia for its marsupials and
+other peculiar animals; and every large island, and most of the small
+ones, to obtain those forms of life that are only to be found in each.
+From the island of Celebes, they must have taken the eighty species of
+birds that are confined to it, which would require them to catch, cage,
+feed, and convey eleven hundred and twenty specimens: a no small job of
+itself. Ten men that could accomplish that, and carry them safe to
+Armenia, would do all that men could do in ten years. From the
+Philippine Islands, the seventy-three species of hawks, parrots, and
+pigeons, peculiar to them; which would require, since fourteen of every
+kind of bird were to be taken into the ark, no less than one thousand
+and twenty-two specimens. From New Guinea, and the neighboring islands,
+two hundred and fifty-two of the magnificent birds of paradise, since
+there are eighteen species.
+
+A faint idea of the difficulties encountered and overcome by Noah's
+agents may be gathered from what Wallace, in his recent work on the
+Malay Archipelago, informs us respecting these birds of paradise. "Five
+voyages to different parts of the district they inhabit, each occupying
+in its preparation and execution the larger part of a year, produced me
+only five species out of the fourteen known to exist in the New-Guinea
+district." If it took Wallace, with all the assistance that he had from
+various officials, five years to obtain five species, represented by
+dead birds, how long did it take Noah's agents to obtain eighteen
+species represented by two hundred and fifty-two live birds? Wallace
+could only obtain two alive, and for these he had to pay five hundred
+dollars.
+
+If the antediluvian sinners were any thing like the modern ones, Noah
+must have been richer than the Rothschilds, or he never could have
+obtained their services; which he must have done, or it could never be
+truthfully said, "according to all that God commanded him, so did he."
+
+The collection of the land-snails alone would be no small tax.
+Seventy-four are peculiar to Great Britain: hence there must have been a
+hundred and forty-eight snails collected from that island. Six hundred
+species are found in Southern Europe alone, and twelve hundred must have
+been collected from there; eighty in Sicily, ten in Corsica, two hundred
+and sixty-four in the Madeira Islands, a hundred and twenty in the
+Canary Islands, twenty-six in St. Helena, sixty-three in Southern
+Africa, eighty-eight in Madagascar, a hundred and twelve in Ceylon, a
+hundred in New Zealand, and others on every large and some of the small
+islands of the globe. The world must have been circumnavigated many
+times before the vessel of Magellan was built, and every island visited
+and ransacked ages before the time of Captain Cook. But it seems
+surprising, since these voyages must have been performed by the sinful
+antediluvians, that they did not save themselves in their ships when the
+flood came; for vessels that could perform such voyages would certainly
+have survived the flood more readily than the clumsy ark.
+
+But was it really done? A thousand men in ten years, with all the
+appliances of modern art,--steamboats, railroads, canals, coaches, and
+express companies,--could not accomplish it in ten years; nor ten times
+the number of men keep all the animals alive in one spot for one year,
+if they were collected together.
+
+"But," says the Christian, "Noah never did collect them: no intelligent
+person in this day ever supposes that he did." What then? "The Bible
+expressly declares that 'they went in unto Noah into the ark.' By
+instinct, such as leads the swallow to take its distant flight at the
+approach of winter, they came from all parts of the globe to the ark of
+safety."
+
+It is true that one account does say that they came in unto Noah, for
+there are two very different stories of the deluge mixed up in those
+chapters of Genesis; but, although flying birds might perform such a
+feat as going twelve thousand miles to the ark, which would be necessary
+for some, how could other animals get there? It would be impossible even
+for some birds. How could the ostriches of Africa, the emus of
+Australia, and the rheas of South America, get there,--birds that never
+fly? There are three species of the rhea, or South-American ostrich; and
+forty-two of these would have a journey of eight thousand miles before
+them, by the shortest route: but how could they cross the Atlantic? If
+they went by land, they must have traversed the length of the American
+continent, from Patagonia to Alaska, crossed at Behring's Strait when it
+was frozen, and then travelled diagonally across nearly the whole
+continent of Asia to Armenia, after a journey that must have required
+many months for its completion. The sloths, that have been confined to
+South America ever since the pliocene period at least, must have taken
+the same route. How they crossed the mountain streams, and lived when
+passing over broad prairies, it would be difficult to say. A mile a day
+would be a rapid rate for these slow travellers, and it would therefore
+require about forty years for them to arrive at their destination. But,
+since the life of a sloth is not as long as this, they must have
+bequeathed their journey to their posterity, and they to their
+descendants, born on the way, who must have reached the ark before the
+door was closed. The land-snails must have met with still greater
+difficulties. Impelled by most wonderful instinct, they commenced their
+journey full a thousand years before the time; and their posterity of
+the five hundredth generation must have made their appearance, and been
+provided with a passage by the venerable Noah.
+
+Scott, who wrote a commentary on the Bible seventy or eighty years ago,
+must have seen some of these difficulties, though with nothing like the
+clearness with which science enables us to see them now. He says, "There
+must have been a very extraordinary miracle wrought, perhaps by the
+ministration of angels, in bringing two of every species to Noah, and
+rendering them submissive to him and peaceable with each other; yet it
+seems not to have made any impression on the hardened spectators."
+
+Think of a troop of angels fly-catching, snail-seeking, and bug-hunting
+through all lands, lugging through the air, horses, giraffes, elephants,
+and rhinoceroses, and dropping them at the door of the ark. One has
+crossed the Atlantic with rattlesnakes, copperheads, and boas twined
+around him, almost crippling his wings with their snaky folds; and
+another with a brace of skunks, one under each wing, that the renewed
+world may not lack the fragrance of the old. What a subject for the
+pencil of a Raphael or Doré! Had the "hardened spectators" beheld such a
+scene as this, Noah and his cargo would have been cast out of the ark,
+and the sinners themselves, converted by this stupendous miracle, would
+have taken passage therein.
+
+Not only must there have been a succession of most stupendous miracles
+to get the animals to the ark, but also to return them to their proper
+places of abode. But few of them could have lived in the neighborhood of
+Ararat, had they been left there. How could the polar bear return to his
+home among the ice-bergs, the sloths to the congenial forests of the New
+World, and all the mammals, reptiles, insects, and snails to their
+respective habitats, the homes of their ancestors for ages innumerable?
+To return them was just as necessary as to obtain them, and, though less
+difficult, was equally impossible.
+
+_How could eight persons, all that were saved in the ark, attend to all
+these animals!_ Nearly all would require food and water once a day, and
+many twice. In a menagerie, one man takes care of four cages,--feeds,
+cleans, and waters the animals. In the ark, each person, women included,
+must have attended each day to ten thousand nine hundred and sixty-four
+birds, seven hundred and sixty-six beasts, one hundred and fourteen
+reptiles, one thousand one hundred and fifty land-snails, and one
+hundred and eighty-seven thousand five hundred insects.
+
+Few persons have an idea of the difficulty of keeping even the common
+birds of a temperate climate alive in confinement for any length of
+time. Food that is quite suitable in a wild state may be fatal to them
+when they are kept in the house. Linnets feed on winter rape-seed in the
+wild state, but soon die if fed upon it in-doors. "They are to be fed,"
+says Bechstein, "on summer rape-seed, moistened in water; and their food
+must be varied by the addition of millet, radish, cabbage, lettuce and
+plantain-seeds, and sometimes a few bruised melon-seeds or barberries."
+Nightingales, he says, should be fed on meal, worms, and fresh ants'
+eggs: but, if it is not possible to get these, a mixture of hard egg,
+ox-heart minced, and white bread may be given; but this often kills the
+birds. No such food would do for Noah's nightingales, then, or where
+would have been the nightingale's song? They must have been fed on meal,
+worms, and _fresh_ ant's eggs. How they were obtained, we have, of
+course, no knowledge. Bechstein says that larks may be fed with "a paste
+made of grated carrot, white bread soaked in water, and barley or wheat
+meal, all worked together in a mortar. In addition to this paste, larks
+should be supplied with poppy-seed, bruised hemp, crumb of bread, and
+plenty of greens, such as lettuce, endive, cabbage, with a little lean
+meat or ant-eggs occasionally." He says the cage should be furnished
+with a piece of fresh turf, often renewed, and great attention should be
+paid to cleanliness. The care of the birds in the ark probably fell to
+the women. As they had not read Bechstein, or any other author on
+bird-keeping,--and thousands of the birds must have been total strangers
+to them,--how did they know what diet to supply them with, and where
+could they get it, supposing they had time to supply them at all?
+
+If the difficulty was great to keep the birds of a temperate climate,
+how much greater must it have been to keep tropical birds in a climate
+altogether unsuited to them? The two birds of paradise bought by Wallace
+were fed, he says, on rice, bananas, and cockroaches: of the last, he
+obtained several cans from a bake-house at Malta, and thus got his
+paradise birds, by good fortune, to England. But how many cans of
+cockroaches would be necessary for two hundred and fifty-two of such
+birds,--the number in the ark? and where were the bake-houses from which
+the supply might be obtained?
+
+To keep this vast menagerie clean would have required a large corps of
+efficient workers, especially when we remember that there was but one
+door in each story, as some suppose; or one door to the whole ark, as
+the story seems to teach, and this door was closed; and but one window,
+and that apparently in the roof. The Augean stable, the cleansing of
+which was one of the labors of Hercules, can but faintly indicate what
+must have been the condition of the ark in less than a month, supposing
+the animals to subsist as long.
+
+_Whence came the water that covered the earth to the tops of the highest
+mountains?_ "All the high hills that were under the whole heaven were
+covered. Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains
+were covered," says the record. And to do this, it rained for forty days
+and forty nights. A fall of an inch of water in a day is considered a
+very heavy rain in Great Britain. The heaviest single rain recorded fell
+on the Khasia Hills in India, and amounted to thirty inches in
+twenty-four hours. If this deluging rain could have continued for forty
+days and nights, and had it fallen over the entire surface of the globe,
+the amount would only have been one hundred feet; which, instead of
+covering the mountains, would not have covered the hills. But, of
+course, such a rain is only possible for a very limited time, and on a
+small portion of the earth's surface.
+
+Sir John Leslie, in "The Encyclopedia Britannica," says, "Supposing the
+vast canopy of air, by some sudden change of internal constitution, at
+once to discharge its whole watery store, this precipitate would form a
+sheet of scarcely five inches thick over the surface of the globe." But
+if the water that covered the earth above the tops of the highest
+mountains came by rain, it must have rained seven hundred feet a day for
+forty days! or there must have fallen each day, according to Sir John
+Leslie's estimate, more than fourteen hundred times as much water on the
+earth as the atmosphere contained!
+
+But the writer says, "The fountains of the great deep were broken up."
+To the Jews, who supposed, with David, that God had founded the earth
+upon the seas, and established it upon the floods, this meant something;
+but, in the light of geology, we see that it only demonstrates the
+ignorance of the man who wrote and the people that believed the story.
+
+Adam Clarke, commenting on this passage, says, "It appears that an
+immense quantity of water occupied the centre of the antediluvian earth;
+and, as this burst forth by the order of God, the circumambient strata
+must sink in order to fill up the vacuum occasioned by the elevated
+waters." If true, it would not have assisted in drowning the world one
+spoonful. For if the strata sank anywhere to fill the hollow previously
+occupied by the water, it would only make the mountains so much higher
+in comparison: hence it would require just that much extra water to
+cover them. In the light of geology, however, the notion is sufficiently
+absurd. A mile and a half deep, the earth's interior is hot enough to
+convert water into steam; there is, therefore, no chance for water to
+exist in its centre, or anywhere near it.
+
+_It is as great a difficulty to discover where the water went when the
+flood was over._ We are told that the fountains of the deep and the
+windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain was restrained. But this
+could do nothing towards diminishing the water. All that it could
+possibly accomplish would be to prevent the rise of the water. But we
+are also told that "God made a wind to pass over the earth." All that
+the wind could do, however, would be to convey to the atmosphere the
+moisture it took up in vapor; and this could not have lowered the water
+a yard. The highest mountain, Kunchinginga, is more than twenty-eight
+thousand feet high; the flood prevailed one hundred and fifty days, and
+abated two hundred and twenty-five; and if this abatement was done by
+the wind, it must have blown an ocean of water from the entire surface
+of the earth, one hundred and twenty-five deep, every day for eight
+months! All the hurricanes that ever blew, blowing at once, would be the
+gentlest zephyr of a summer's eve, compared with such a wind as that;
+and by what possibility could such a craft as the ark survive the storm?
+
+A question, proper to be asked is, _How were the animals supplied with
+light?_ and how did the attendants see to wait upon them in the first
+and second stories of the ark? There was but one window, and that only
+twenty-two inches in size, and it appears to have been in the third
+story. It was a day when kerosene was unknown, and tallow dips were
+uninvented. How did these animals live in the darkness? and, above all,
+how did Noah and his family supply their wants? It could have been no
+easy or pleasant thing to wait upon hungry lions, tigers, crocodiles,
+and rattlesnakes in the dark, to say nothing of the danger.
+
+_How did they breathe?_ There was but one twenty-two inch window; the
+ark was "pitched within and without with pitch;" "The Lord shut him in."
+Talk of the Black Hole of Calcutta: it must have been pure as the breath
+of morning compared with the condition of the ark in one day.
+
+_Where did they obtain water for drink?_ Supposing all the additional
+water needed to drown the world was fresh, when mingled with the water
+of the sea, as much as one-tenth of it would be salt water, and this
+would render it utterly unfit for drink. Provision must therefore have
+been made for water; and a space certainly half as large as the ark must
+have been taken up for the water necessary for this immense multitude.
+
+_The fish, mollusks, crustaceans (such as our crabs and lobsters), and
+all corals, must have died if such a flood had taken place_,--the
+fresh-water fish from the salt water at once added to their proper
+element, and the salt-water fish and other marine forms from so large an
+addition of fresh water. For months, there could have been no shore:
+what is now the margin of the sea was buried miles deep; and all the
+fucoidal vegetation, upon which myriads of animals subsist, must have
+perished, and the animals with it, if the change in the constitution of
+the water had not killed them. Every time a man swallows an oyster, he
+has evidence that the Noachian deluge did not take place.
+
+_The plants must have perished also._ How many of our trees, to say
+nothing of the grasses and feeble plants, could endure a soaking of
+nearly twelve months' duration? Some of the very hardiest seeds might
+survive, but the number could not be large. The present condition of
+vegetation upon the globe is another evidence, then, that this deluge
+did not take place.
+
+_When the ark landed on Mount Ararat, and the animals went forth, how
+did they subsist?_ As they went down the mountains, the carnivorous
+animals would have devoured a large portion of the herbivorous animals
+saved in the ark. Beside the lions, tigers, leopards, ounces, and other
+carnivorous mammals, amounting to eight hundred and ninety-two, there
+were in the ark six hundred and sixty-six eagles, for there are
+forty-eight species; one hundred and forty-four buzzards, fourteen
+hundred and forty-two falcons, one hundred and forty hawks, two hundred
+and thirty-eight vultures, and eight hundred and ninety six owls. What
+chance would a few sheep, rabbits and squirrels, rats and mice, doves
+and chickens, have, among this ravenous multitude? How could the ants
+escape, with ant-eaters, aard-varks and pangolins on the watch for them
+as soon as they made their appearance? There were as many dogs as hares,
+as many cats as mice. How long a lease of life could the sheep, hares,
+and mice, calculate upon? Before the herbivorous animals had multiplied,
+so as to furnish the carnivorous animals with food, they must all have
+been destroyed, after all the pains taken for their preservation. Noah
+should have given the herbivora, at least a year's start, especially
+since the vegetation of the globe was so deficient.
+
+But we are told that the species of animals may have been much fewer in
+the days of Noah; and, therefore, much less room would be necessary. A
+single pair of cats, say some, may have produced all the animals of the
+cat kind; a pair of dogs, all the animals that belong to the dog family.
+Such an explanation might have been given when zoölogy was little known,
+and geology had no existence; but there is no place for it now. Animals
+change, it is true, and all species have probably been produced from a
+few originals; but the process by which this is accomplished is so slow
+in its operation, that we have no knowledge of the formation of a new
+species. We know that lions, tigers, and cats of various species,
+existed long before the time of the deluge, and dogs, wolves and foxes;
+and we find mummied cats, dogs, and other animals in Egypt, as old or
+older than the deluge, so little changed from those of the present time
+in the same locality, that we cannot recognize any difference between
+them.
+
+_"You seem to forget that all things are possible with God: he could
+have packed these animals into an ark of one-half the size, brought them
+altogether in the twinkling of an eye, and returned them as rapidly."_
+
+And you seem to forget that the account in Genesis gives us no hint of
+any such miracle. Noah was to take the animals to him, and to take unto
+him of all food that is eaten; and, as Hugh Miller remarks, "the
+expedient of having recourse to supposititious miracle in order to get
+over a difficulty insurmountable on every natural principle, is not of
+the nature of an argument, but simply an evidence of the want of it.
+Argument is at an end when supposititious miracle is introduced." But,
+if a miracle was worked, it was not one, but ten thousand of the most
+stupendous miracles, and entirely unnecessary ones. This, the Rev. Dr.
+Pye Smith saw, when he said, "We cannot represent to ourselves the idea
+of all land animals being brought into one small spot, from the polar
+regions, the torrid zone, and all the 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,--the
+resurrection of the Lord Jesus,--sinks down before it."
+
+It is a favorite method with the advocates of special revelations to
+show their agreement with the operations of natural law, till a
+difficulty is met with that cannot be answered, when they flee at once
+to miracle to save them. But, in this case, miracle itself cannot save
+them.
+
+Geology furnishes us with evidence that no such deluge has taken place.
+According to Hugh Miller, "In various parts of the world, such as
+Auvergne in Central France, and along the flanks of Etna, there are
+cones of long-extinct or long-slumbering volcanoes, which, though of at
+least triple the antiquity of the Noachian deluge, and though composed
+of the ordinary incoherent materials, exhibit no marks of denudation.
+According to the calculations of Sir Charles Lyell, no devastating flood
+could have passed over the forest-zone of Etna during the last twelve
+thousand years."
+
+Archćology enters her protest equally against it. We have abundance of
+Egyptian mummies, statues, inscriptions, paintings, and other
+representations of Egyptian life belonging to a much earlier period than
+the deluge. With only such modifications as time slowly introduced, we
+find the people, their language, and their habits, continuing after that
+time, as they had done for centuries before. Lepsius, writing from the
+pyramids of Memphis, in 1843, says, "We are still busy with structures,
+sculptures, and inscriptions, which are to be classed, by means of the
+now more accurately determined groups of kings, in an epoch of highly
+flourishing civilization, as far back as the fourth millennium before
+Christ." That is one thousand six hundred and fifty-six years before the
+time of the flood. Lyell says that "Chevalier Bunsen, in his elaborate
+and philosophical work on ancient Egypt, has satisfied not a few of the
+learned, by an appeal to monumental inscriptions still extant, that the
+successive dynasties of kings may be traced back without a break, to
+Menes, and that the date of his reign would correspond with the year
+3,640 B.C.;" that is nearly thirteen hundred years before the time of
+the deluge. Strange that the whole world should have been drowned and
+the Egyptians never knew it!
+
+From the "Types of Mankind," we learn that the fact is "asserted by
+Lepsius, and familiar to all Egyptologists, that negro and other races
+already existed in Northern Africa, on the Upper Nile, 2,300 years B.C."
+
+But this is only forty-eight years after the deluge. What kind of a
+family had Noah? Was amalgamation practised by any of Noah's sons? If
+all the human occupants of the ark were Caucasians, how did they produce
+negro races in forty-eight years? The facts again compel us to announce
+the fabulous character of this Genesical story of the deluge.
+
+_"No intelligent person now believes that it was a total deluge:
+Buckland, Pye Smith, Miller, Hitchcock, and all Christian geologists,
+agree that it was a partial deluge, and the account can be so
+explained."_
+
+How strange that God should dictate an account of the deluge that led
+everybody to a false conclusion with regard to it, till science taught
+them a better. But let us read what the account says, and see whether it
+can be explained to signify a partial deluge. To save the Bible from its
+inevitable fate, such men as Buckland, Smith, Miller, Hitchcock, and
+other Bible apologists, it is evident from their writings, were ready to
+resort to any scheme, however wild.
+
+I read (Gen. vi. 7), "I will destroy both man and beast, and the
+creeping thing." How could a partial deluge accomplish this? (v. 13);
+"The end of all flesh is come before me. I will destroy them with the
+earth." How could all flesh be destroyed with the earth by any other
+than a total deluge? (v. 17); "I do bring a flood of waters upon the
+earth, to destroy all flesh wherein is the breath of life, from under
+heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die." Not only is man
+to be destroyed, but all flesh wherein is the breath of life, from under
+heaven, and every thing in the earth is to die. Can this be tortured to
+mean a partial deluge? (vii. 19); "And the waters prevailed exceedingly
+upon the earth; and all the high hills that were under the whole heaven
+were covered; and all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of
+fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of creeping thing that creepeth
+upon the earth, and every man. All in whose nostrils was the breath of
+life, of all that was in the dry land, died. And every living substance
+was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man and
+cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they
+were destroyed from the earth, and Noah only remained alive, and they
+that were with him in the ark." Had the man who wrote this story been a
+lawyer, and had he known how these would-be-Bible-believers, and at the
+same time geologists, would seek to pervert his meaning, he could not
+have more carefully worded his account. It is not possible for any man
+to express the idea of a total flood more definitely than this man has
+done. He does not merely say the hills were covered, but "_all_" the
+hills were covered; and lest you should think that he certainly did not
+mean the most elevated, he is careful to say "all the _high_" hills were
+covered; and lest some one should say he only meant the hills in that
+part of the country, he says expressly "all the high hills that were
+_under the whole heaven were covered_." He is even so cautious as to
+introduce the phrase "_whole_ heaven," lest some one in its absence
+might still think that the deluge was a partial one. To make its
+universality still more evident, he says, "All flesh died that moved
+upon the earth." This would have been sufficiently definite for most
+persons, but not so for him; he particularizes so that none may
+escape,--"both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of creeping
+thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man." To leave no
+possibility of mistake, he adds, "all in whose nostrils was the breath
+of life, of all that was in the dry land, died." Can any thing more be
+needed? The writer seems to see that some theological professor may even
+yet try to make this mean a partial deluge; and he therefore says,
+"Every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the
+ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of
+the heaven; they were destroyed from the earth." Is it possible to add
+to the strength of this? He thinks it is; and he therefore says, "Noah
+only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark." Could any
+truthful man write this and then mean that less than a hundredth part of
+the earth's surface was covered. If not a total flood, why save the
+animals, above all the birds? All that Noah and his family need to have
+done would have been to move out of the region till the storm was over.
+If a partial flood, how could the ark have rested on the mountains of
+Ararat? Ararat itself is seventeen thousand feet high, and it rises from
+a plateau that is seven thousand feet above the sea-level. A flood that
+enabled the ark to float on to that mountain could not have been far
+from universal; and, when such a flood is accounted for on scientific
+principles, it will be just as easy to account for a total flood.
+
+_"The flood was only intended to destroy man, and therefore only covered
+those parts of the earth that were occupied by him."_
+
+The Bible states, however, that it was intended to destroy every thing
+wherein was the breath of life; and your account and the Bible account
+do not at all agree. But, if man was intended to be destroyed, the flood
+must have been wide-spread. We know that Africa was occupied before that
+time, and had been for thousands of years, by various races. We learn,
+from the recent discoveries in the Swiss Lakes, that man was in
+Switzerland before that time; in France, as Boucher's and Rigollet's
+discoveries prove; in Great Britain, as the caves in Devonshire show; in
+North America, as the fossil human skull beneath Table Mountain
+demonstrates. Hence, for the flood to destroy man alone at so recent a
+period, it must have been as wide spread as the earth.
+
+Even according to the Bible account, the garden of Eden, where man was
+first placed, was somewhere near the Euphrates; and in sixteen hundred
+years the race must have rambled over a large part of the earth's
+surface. The highest mountains in the world, the Himalayas, are within
+two thousand miles of the Euphrates. That splendid country, India, would
+have been occupied long before the time of the deluge; and, on the
+flanks of the Himalayas, man could have laughed at any flood that
+natural causes could possibly produce.
+
+_"How do you account, then, for these traditions of a deluge that we
+find all over the globe?"_
+
+Nothing more easy. In all times floods have occurred; some by heavy and
+long-continued rains, others by the bursting of lake-barriers or the
+irruption of the sea; and wherever traditions of these have been met
+with, men with the Bible story in their minds have at once attributed
+their origin to the Noachian deluge.
+
+_"But Jesus and the apostles indorse the account of the deluge."_
+
+Granted; but does that transform a fable into a fact? They believed the
+story just as our modern theologians believe it; because they were
+taught it when they were children, and had not learned better. Jesus
+says (Matt. xxv. 37-39), "But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the
+coming of the Son of man be. For, as in the days that were before the
+flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage,
+until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and knew not until the
+flood came and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son
+of man be." If the man had regarded the story as false, he never would
+have referred to it in such a manner. And, in this manifestation of
+credulity on the part of Jesus, we can see the very false estimate
+placed upon him by so large a portion of the people of this country. Let
+the truth be spoken, though Jesus and all other idols be overthrown. So
+he would say, if alive, or he was not as good and intelligent a man as I
+think he was.
+
+By this story the Bible stands or falls as a divine book. It falls, as
+we see, and takes its place with all other human fallible productions.
+For knowledge, we go to Nature, our universal mother, who gives her
+Bible to every soul, and preaches her everlasting gospel to all people.
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note:
+
+    Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note. Variant
+    spellings have been retained. Hyphenation has been standardised.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Deluge in the Light of Modern
+Science, by William Denton
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DELUGE IN LIGHT OF MODERN SCIENCE ***
+
+***** This file should be named 25975-8.txt or 25975-8.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/2/5/9/7/25975/
+
+Produced by Bryan Ness, Stephen Blundell and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from scans of public domain works at the
+University of Michigan's Making of America collection.)
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
diff --git a/25975-8.zip b/25975-8.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d20673d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/25975-8.zip
diff --git a/25975-h.zip b/25975-h.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5af695f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/25975-h.zip
diff --git a/25975-h/25975-h.htm b/25975-h/25975-h.htm
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..648497a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/25975-h/25975-h.htm
@@ -0,0 +1,1636 @@
+<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+    "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
+  <head>
+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" />
+    <title>
+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Deluge in the Light of Modern Science, by William Denton
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css">
+/*<![CDATA[  XML blockout */
+<!--
+    p {margin-top: .75em; text-align: justify; margin-bottom: .75em;}
+    h1,h2 {text-align: center; clear: both; font-weight: normal;}
+    h1 {line-height: 2em;}
+    h2 {line-height: 1.5em;}
+    hr {width: 65%; margin: 2em auto; clear: both;}
+    body {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;}
+    .pagenum {position: absolute; right: 1%; font-size: small; font-style: normal; text-align: right; text-indent: 0em;}
+    .p1, .p2 {text-align: center;}
+    .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;}
+    .trn {border: solid 1px; margin: 3em 15%; padding: 1em; text-align: justify;}
+    .fss {font-size: small;}
+    .fsm {font-size: medium;}
+    .fsxl {font-size: x-large;}
+    .p1 {margin: 3em 0;}
+    .p2 {margin-top: 4em;}
+    // -->
+    /* XML end  ]]>*/
+    </style>
+  </head>
+<body>
+
+
+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Deluge in the Light of Modern Science, by 
+William Denton
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Deluge in the Light of Modern Science
+       A Discourse
+
+Author: William Denton
+
+Release Date: July 6, 2008 [EBook #25975]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DELUGE IN LIGHT OF MODERN SCIENCE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Bryan Ness, Stephen Blundell and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from scans of public domain works at the
+University of Michigan's Making of America collection.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<h1><big>THE DELUGE</big><br />
+<span class="fss">IN THE</span><br />
+LIGHT OF MODERN SCIENCE.</h1>
+
+<p class="p1"><span class="fsxl"><b><i>A Discourse.</i></b></span></p>
+
+<h2><span class="fsm">BY</span><br />
+WILLIAM DENTON.</h2>
+
+<p class="p2">WELLESLEY, MASS.:<br />
+<big>DENTON PUBLISHING COMPANY.</big><br />
+1882.</p>
+
+<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span></p>
+<h1><small>THE DELUGE IN THE LIGHT OF MODERN SCIENCE.</small></h1>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">If</span> the Bible is God's book, we ought to know it.
+If the Creator of the universe has spoken to man,
+how important that we should listen to his voice and
+obey his instructions! On the other hand, if the
+Bible is not God's book, we ought to know it. Why
+should we go through the world with a lie in our
+right hand, dupes of the ignorant men who preceded
+us? It can never be for our soul's benefit to cherish
+a falsehood.</p>
+
+<p>Science is, perhaps, the best test that we can apply
+to decide the question. Science is really a knowledge
+of what Nature has done, and is doing; and
+since the upholders of the divinity of the Bible believe
+that it proceeded from the Author of nature, if
+their faith is true, it cannot possibly disagree with
+what science teaches.</p>
+
+<p>Science is a fiery furnace, that has consumed a
+thousand delusions, and must consume all that remain.
+We cast into it astrology and alchemy, and their ashes
+barely remain to tell of their existence. Old notions
+of the earth and heavens went in, and vanished as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span>
+their dupes gazed upon them. Old religions, old
+gods, have become as the incense that was burned
+before their altars.</p>
+
+<p>I purpose to try the Bible in its searching fire.
+Fear not, my brother: it can but burn the straw and
+stubble; if gold, it will shine as bright after the fiery
+ordeal as before, and reflect as perfectly the image of
+truth.</p>
+
+<p>The Bible abounds with marvellous stories,&mdash;stories
+that we should at once reject from their intrinsic improbability,
+not to say impossibility, if we should find
+them in any other book. But, among all the stories,
+there is none that equals the account of the deluge,
+as given in the sixth, seventh, and eighth chapters of
+Genesis. It towers above the rest as Mount Washington
+does above the New-England hills; and, as
+travellers delight to climb the loftiest peaks, I suppose
+that many would be pleased to examine this
+lofty story, and see how the world of truth and
+actuality looks from its summit.</p>
+
+<p>According to the account, in less than two thousand
+years after God had created all things, and pronounced
+them very good, he became thoroughly
+dissatisfied with every living thing, and determined
+to destroy them with the earth. He thus expresses
+himself: "I will destroy man, whom I have created,
+from the face of the earth,&mdash;both man and beast, and
+the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it
+repenteth me that I have made them." Again he
+says to Noah, "The end of all flesh is come before
+me; for the earth is filled with violence through
+them, and behold I will destroy them with the
+earth."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Why should the beasts, birds, and creeping things
+be destroyed? What had the larks, the doves, and
+the bob-o-links done? What had the squirrels and
+the tortoises been guilty of, that they should be
+destroyed?</p>
+
+<p>He proceeds to inform Noah how he will do this:
+"And behold I, even I, do bring a flood of waters
+upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the
+breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing
+that is in the earth shall die." And we are subsequently
+informed that "every thing that was in the
+dry land died." But why not every thing in the sea?
+Were the dogs sinners, and the dog-fish saints? Had
+the sheep been more guilty than the sharks? Had the
+pigeons become utterly corrupt, and the pikes remained
+perfectly innocent? It may be, that the
+apparent impossibility of drowning them by a flood
+suggested to the writer of the story the necessity of
+saving them alive.</p>
+
+<p>But Noah was righteous; and God determined to
+save him and his family, eight persons, and by their
+instrumentality to save alive animals sufficient to
+stock the world again after its destruction.</p>
+
+<p>To do this, Noah was commanded to build an ark,
+three hundred cubits long, fifty broad, and thirty
+high. It was to be made with three stories, and furnished
+with one door, and one window a cubit wide.
+Into this ark were to be taken two of every sort of
+living thing, and of clean beasts and of birds seven of
+every sort, male and female, and food sufficient for
+them all.</p>
+
+<p>There are differences of opinion about the length
+of the cubit: most probably it was about eighteen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span>
+inches; but taking it at twenty-two inches, the largest
+estimate that I believe theologians have made, the
+ark was then five hundred and fifty feet long, ninety-one
+feet eight inches broad, and fifty-five feet high.
+Leaving space for the floors, which would need to be
+very strong, each story was about seventeen feet
+high; and the total cubical contents of the ark were
+about one hundred and two thousand cubic yards.
+Scott, in his commentary, makes it as small as sixty-nine
+thousand one hundred and twenty yards; but the
+necessity for room was not as well understood in his
+day. Each floor of the ark contained five thousand
+six hundred and one square yards, and the three
+floors sixteen thousand eight hundred and three
+square yards, the total standing-room of the ark.</p>
+
+<p>Into this were to be taken fourteen of each kind of
+fowl of the air or bird. How many kinds or species
+of birds are there? When Adam Clarke wrote his
+commentary, two thousand three hundred and seventy-two
+species had been recognized. Ornithology
+was then but in its infancy, and man's knowledge of
+living forms was very limited. Lesson, according to
+Hugh Miller, enumerates the birds at six thousand
+two hundred and sixty-six species; Gray, in his
+"Genera of Birds," estimates the number on the globe
+at eight thousand. Let us not crowd Noah, but take
+the six thousand two hundred and sixty-six species of
+Lesson. Fourteen of each of these would give us eighty-seven
+thousand seven hundred and twenty-four birds,&mdash;from
+the humming-bird, the little flying jewel, to the
+ostrich that fans the heated air of the desert,&mdash;or
+over five for every yard of standing-room in the
+ark. If spaces were left for the attendants to pass<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span>
+among them, to attend to the supply of their daily
+wants, the birds alone would crowd the ark.</p>
+
+<p>But, beside the birds, there were to be taken into
+the ark two of every sort of unclean beast and fourteen
+of every sort of clean beast. The most recent zo&ouml;logical
+authorities enumerate two thousand and sixty-seven
+species of mammals, or, as they are commonly
+called, beasts. Of cetacea, or whale-like mammals,
+sixty-five; ruminantia, or cud-chewers, one hundred and
+seventy-seven; pachydermata, or thick-skinned mammals,
+such as the horse, hog, and elephant, forty-one;
+edentata, like the sloth and ant-eater, thirty-five;
+rodentia, or gnawers, such as the rat, squirrel, and
+beaver, six hundred and seventeen; carnivora, or
+flesh-eaters, four hundred and forty-six; cheiroptera,
+or bats, three hundred and twenty-eight; quadrumana,
+or monkeys, two hundred and twenty-one; and
+marsupialia, or pouched mammals, like the opossum
+and kangaroo, one hundred and thirty-seven. If we
+leave out the cetacea, that live in the water, and the
+cud-chewers, which are the clean beasts, we have one
+thousand eight hundred and twenty-five species; and
+male and female of these, a total of three thousand
+six hundred and fifty.</p>
+
+<p>But, besides these, there were to be taken into the
+ark fourteen of every kind of clean beast. And what
+are clean beasts? The scriptural answer is, animals
+that divide the hoof and chew the cud; and of these at
+least one hundred and seventy-seven species are known.
+Fourteen of each of these added, make a total of six
+thousand one hundred and twenty-eight mammals,
+from the mouse to the elephant. These beasts could not
+be piled one upon another like cord-wood; they could<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span>
+not be promiscuously crowded together. The sheep
+would need careful protection from the lions, tigers,
+and wolves; the elephant and other ponderous beasts
+would require stalls of great thickness; much room
+would be required to enable them to obtain needful
+exercise, and for the attendants to supply them with
+food and water; and a vessel of the size of the ark
+would be taxed to provide for these beasts alone;
+and to crowd in, and preserve alive, beasts and birds,
+was an absolute impossibility.</p>
+
+<p>But there are of reptiles six hundred and fifty-seven
+species; and Noah was to take into the ark two of
+every sort of creeping thing. Two hundred of these
+reptiles are, however, aquatic: hence water would not
+seriously affect them; but crocodiles, lizards, iguanas,
+tree-frogs, horned frogs, thunder-snakes, chicken-snakes,
+brittlesnakes, rattlesnakes, copperheads, asps,
+cobras de capello, whose bite is certain death, and
+a host of others, must be provided for. It would
+not do to allow these disagreeable individuals to
+crawl about the ark; and nine hundred and fourteen
+of them would require considerable space, whether
+they could obtain it or not.</p>
+
+<p>By this time, the ark is doubly crowded; but its
+living cargo is not yet completed. A dense cloud of
+insects, and a vast army destitute of wings, make their
+appearance, and clamor for admission. The number
+of articulates that must have been provided for is
+estimated at seven hundred and fifty thousand species,&mdash;from
+the butterflies of Brazil, fourteen inches
+from the tip of one wing to the tip of the other, to
+the almost invisible gnat, that dances in the summer's
+beam. Ants, beetles, flies, bugs, fleas, mosquitoes,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span>
+wasps, bees, moths, butterflies, spiders, scorpions,
+grasshoppers, locusts, myriapods, canker-worms, wriggling,
+crawling, creeping, flying, male and female,
+here they come, and all must be provided for.</p>
+
+<p>Nor are these the last. The air-breathing land-snails,
+of which we know four thousand six hundred
+species, could never have survived a twelve months'
+soaking; and they must therefore be cared for. The
+nine thousand two hundred of these add no little to
+the discomfort of the trebly-crowded ark.</p>
+
+<p>Now let the flood come: all are lodged in the ark
+of safety, and are ready for a year's voyage. But we
+forget: the ark has not yet received one-half of its
+cargo. The command given unto Noah was, "Take
+thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou
+shalt gather it to thee; and it shall be for food for
+thee and for them;" and we are expressly told that
+"according to all that God commanded Noah, so
+did he."</p>
+
+<p>Food for how long? The flood began in the "sixth
+hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month,
+the seventeenth day of the month." Noah, his family,
+and the animals, went in seven days before this time,
+and left the ark the six hundred and first year of
+Noah's life, the second month, and the twenty-seventh
+day of the month. They were therefore in the
+ark for one year and seventeen days.</p>
+
+<p>What a quantity of hay would be required, the
+material most easily obtained! An elephant eats four
+hundred pounds of hay in twenty-four hours. Since
+there are two species of elephants, the African and
+the Indian, there must have been four elephants in
+the ark; and, supposing them to live upon hay, they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span>
+would require three hundred tons. There are at
+least seven species of the rhinoceros; and fourteen
+of these, at seventy-five tons each, would consume no
+less than one thousand and fifty tons. The two thousand
+four hundred and seventy-eight clean beasts,&mdash;oxen,
+elk, giraffes, camels, deer, antelope, sheep,
+goats, with the horses, zebras, asses, hippopotami,
+rodents, and marsupials&mdash;could not have required less
+than four thousand five hundred tons; making a total
+of five thousand eight hundred and fifty tons. A
+ton of hay occupies about eighteen cubic yards; and
+the quantity of hay required would fill a hundred
+and five thousand three hundred cubic yards of space,
+or more than the entire capacity of the ark.</p>
+
+<p>If these animals were fed on other substances than
+hay, the extra difficulty of obtaining and preserving
+those substances would counterbalance any advantage
+that might be gained by the economy of space.</p>
+
+<p>A vast quantity of grain would be necessary for
+thousands of birds, rodents, marsupials, and other
+animals; and large granaries would be required for its
+storage.</p>
+
+<p>What flesh would be needed for the lions, tigers,
+leopards, ounces, wild-cats, wolves, bears, hyenas,
+jackals, dogs, and foxes, martens, weasels, eagles,
+condors, vultures, buzzards, falcons, hawks, kites,
+owls, as well as crocodiles and serpents! Not one
+but would eat its weight in a month, and some much
+more. A full-grown lion eats fifteen pounds of flesh
+in a day: there are two species of lions; and the four
+would eat twenty-two thousand pounds in a year.
+There would be, at least, three thousand animals<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span>
+feeding upon flesh; and, if we calculate that they
+averaged two pounds of flesh a day, this would
+give a total of more than two million and a quarter
+pounds of flesh to be stored up and distributed.
+And since dried, salted, or smoked meat would not
+answer, this flesh must have been taken into the ark
+alive. It would be equal to more than thirty thousand
+sheep at seventy-five pounds each; a great addition
+to the original cargo, and necessitating an
+extra quantity of hay for their food, till their turn
+came to be eaten.</p>
+
+<p>Fish would be required for the otters, minks, pelicans,
+of which there are eight species, and must
+therefore have been fifty-six individuals in the ark;
+one hundred and five gulls, for there are fifteen
+species; one hundred and twelve cormorants, forty-nine
+gannets, one hundred and forty terns, two hundred
+and eighty-seven kingfishers, beside storks,
+herons, spoonbills, penguins, albatrosses, and a host
+of others; mollusks for the oyster-catcher, turnstone,
+and other birds.</p>
+
+<p>The fish could not be preserved after death in any
+way to answer for food, and must therefore have
+been alive: large tanks for the purpose of keeping
+them would take up considerable of the ark's space.
+The water in such tanks would soon become unfitted
+for the respiration of the fish, and there must have
+been some provision, by air-pumps or otherwise, for
+charging the water with the air essential to their
+existence.</p>
+
+<p>Many animals live upon insects; and this must
+have been the most difficult part of the provision to
+procure. There are nineteen species of goatsuckers;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span>
+and there must have been in the ark two hundred
+and sixty-six individuals. These birds feed upon
+flies, moths, beetles, and other insects. What an innumerable
+multitude must have been provided for the
+goatsuckers alone! But there are a hundred and
+thirty-seven species of fly-catchers; and Noah must
+have had a fly-catcher family of nineteen hundred and
+eighteen individuals to supply with appropriate food.
+There are thirty-seven species of bee-eaters; and
+there must have been five hundred and eighteen of
+these birds to supply with bees. A very large
+apiary would be required to supply their needs. But,
+beside these, insects for swallows, swifts, martins,
+shrikes, thrushes, orioles, sparrows, the beautiful
+trogans and jacamars, moles, shrews, hedgehogs, and
+a multitude of others, too numerous to mention, but
+not too numerous to eat. Ants, also, for the ant-eaters
+of America, the aard-vark of Africa, and the pangolin
+of Asia. The great ant-eater of South America
+is an animal sometimes measuring eight feet in
+length. It lives exclusively on ants, which it procures
+by tearing open their hills with its hooked
+claws, and then drawing its long tongue, which is
+covered with glutinous saliva, over the swarms
+which rush out to defend their dwelling. Many
+bushels of ants would be needed for the pair of ant-eaters
+before the ark landed on Ararat. How were
+all the insects caught, and kept for the use of all these
+animals for more than a year? A hundred men could
+not catch a sufficient number in six months. And, if
+caught, how could they be preserved, together with
+the original stock of insects necessary to supply the
+world after the deluge? Some insects eat only bark;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span>
+others, resinous secretions, the pith, solid wood,
+leaves, sap in the veins, as the aphid, flowers, pollen,
+and honey. Wood, bark, resin, and honey might
+have been supplied; but how could green leaves, sap,
+flowers and pollen, be furnished to those insects absolutely
+requiring them for existence? Thirty species
+of insects feed on the nettle, but not one of them
+could live on dried nettles. R&ouml;sel calculates that
+two hundred species subsist on the oak; but the oak
+must be in a growing condition to supply them with
+food. In no other way, then, could the insects have
+been preserved alive than by large green-houses, the
+heat so applied as to suit the plants of both temperate
+and tropical climates, and the insects so distributed
+among them, that each could obtain its
+appropriate nourishment.</p>
+
+<p>Fruit would be necessary for the four hundred and
+forty-two monkeys, for the plantain-eaters, the fruit-pigeons
+of the Spice Islands that feed on nutmegs,
+for the toucans and the flocks of parrots, parroquets,
+cockatoos, and other fruit-eating birds. As they did
+not know how to can fruit in those days, and dried
+fruit would be altogether unsuitable, there must have
+been a large green-house for raising all manner of
+fruit necessary for the frugivorous multitude.</p>
+
+<p><i>How were the various animals obtained?</i> The command
+given to Noah was, "Two of every sort shalt
+thou <i>bring</i> into the ark."</p>
+
+<p>Animals, as is now well known, belong to limited
+centres, outside of which they are never found in a
+natural state; and naturalists know that these centres
+were established ages before the time when the
+deluge is supposed to have occurred.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Thus, Hugh Miller, in his "Testimony of the Rocks,"
+says, "We now know that every great continent has
+its own peculiar fauna; that the original centres of
+distribution must have been, not one, but many;
+further, that the areas or circles around these centres
+must have been occupied by their pristine animals in
+ages long anterior to that of the Noachian Deluge;
+nay, that in even the latter geologic ages they were
+preceded in them by animals of the same general
+type. There are fourteen such areas, or provinces,
+enumerated by the later naturalists;" and Cuvier,
+quoted by Miller, says, "The great continents contain
+species peculiar to each; insomuch, that whenever
+large countries, of this description, have been discovered,
+which their situation had kept isolated from the
+rest of the world, the class of quadrupeds which they
+contained has been found extremely different from
+any that had existed elsewhere. Thus, when the Spaniards
+first penetrated into South America, they did
+not find a single species of quadruped the same as
+any of Europe, Asia, or Africa."</p>
+
+<p>The white bear is never found except in the arctic
+regions; the great grizzly bear is only found in the
+neighborhood of the Rocky Mountains. Nearly all
+the species of mammals found in Australia are confined
+to that country, as the wingless birds of New
+Zealand are confined to that, and the sloth, armadillo,
+and other animals, to South America.</p>
+
+<p>A journey to the polar regions would be necessary
+to obtain the white bear, the musk-ox, of which seven
+would be required, since it is a clean beast; seven
+reindeer, likewise; the white fox, the polar hare, the
+lemming, and seven of each species of cormorant,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span>
+gannet, penguin, petrel, and gull, some of which are
+as large as eagles, as well as mergansers, geese, and
+ducks, certain species of which are only found in the
+frigid zone. Noah or his agents must have discovered
+Greenland and North America thousands of
+years before Columbus was born: they must have
+preceded Behring, Parry, Ross, Kane, and Hayes in
+exploring the Arctic regions. They searched the ice-floes
+and numerous islands of the Arctic seas, snow-shoed,
+over the frozen <i>tundras</i> of Siberia, to be certain
+that no living thing escaped them; then, after
+catching and caging all the animals, conveyed them,
+with all manner of food necessary for their sustenance,
+together with ice to temper the heat of the climate
+to which they were for more than a year to be exposed,
+returned to the nearest port, and, after a toilsome
+journey from the sea-coast to Armenia, arrived
+at their destination. How many of these animals
+would survive the journey? and, of those that did,
+how many would survive the change of climate and
+habits?</p>
+
+<p>Another party must have visited temperate America;
+traversed New England in its length and breadth,
+forded wide streams, made their way through unbroken
+wildernesses, traversed the Great Lakes,
+roamed over the Rocky Mountains, and secured the
+black bear, cinnamon bear, wapiti or Canadian stag,
+the moose, American deer, antelope, mountain sheep,
+buffalo, opossum, rattlesnake, copperhead, and an
+innumerable multitude of other animals&mdash;insects
+birds, reptiles, and mammals, that are only to be found
+in the temperate regions of America.</p>
+
+<p>A voyage to South America must have been made<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span>
+to obtain tapirs, pumas, peccaries, sloths, ant-eaters,
+armadillos, fourteen each of the llama, alpaca, and vicuna,
+beside monkeys, birds, and insects innumerable.
+A vessel nearly as large as "The Great Eastern"
+must have been employed, or a number of smaller
+ones, to accommodate the collectors, the animals, and
+food for a voyage across the Atlantic. There must
+have been, at least, a thousand men, wandering
+through the woods of Brazil, along the valley of the
+Amazon, the Orinoco, and the La Plata; paddling up
+the streams, scaling the mountains, roaming over the
+pampas, climbing the tall trees, turning over every
+stone and log, and exploring every nook, to discover
+the snails, bugs, insects, worms, reptiles, and other
+animals indigenous to South America, from the Isthmus
+to Tierra-del-fuego.</p>
+
+<p>There must have been obtained four elephants, for
+there are two species, the Asiatic and the Indian;
+fourteen rhinoceroses, one of which is found only in
+South Africa, another in the island of Java, and a
+third in Sumatra; two hippopotami, and possibly four,
+for some authorities say there are two species. Fourteen
+giraffes, since they are clean beasts, must have
+been caught and driven from Central Africa (many
+more, indeed, must have been caught, that the required
+number might reach the ark and be preserved);
+twenty-eight camels, two hundred and eighty oxen (for
+there are twenty species, and they are clean); and no
+less than thirteen hundred and eighty-six deer and antelope,
+of which there are ninety-nine species recognized:
+these to be collected in various parts of Europe,
+Asia, Northern and Southern Africa, and America.</p>
+
+<p>New Zealand must have been visited to obtain its<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span>
+wingless birds; Mauritius for its dodo, then living;
+Australia for its marsupials and other peculiar animals;
+and every large island, and most of the small
+ones, to obtain those forms of life that are only to be
+found in each. From the island of Celebes, they must
+have taken the eighty species of birds that are confined
+to it, which would require them to catch, cage, feed,
+and convey eleven hundred and twenty specimens:
+a no small job of itself. Ten men that could accomplish
+that, and carry them safe to Armenia, would do
+all that men could do in ten years. From the Philippine
+Islands, the seventy-three species of hawks, parrots,
+and pigeons, peculiar to them; which would require,
+since fourteen of every kind of bird were to be
+taken into the ark, no less than one thousand and
+twenty-two specimens. From New Guinea, and the
+neighboring islands, two hundred and fifty-two of the
+magnificent birds of paradise, since there are eighteen
+species.</p>
+
+<p>A faint idea of the difficulties encountered and
+overcome by Noah's agents may be gathered from
+what Wallace, in his recent work on the Malay Archipelago,
+informs us respecting these birds of paradise.
+"Five voyages to different parts of the district they
+inhabit, each occupying in its preparation and execution
+the larger part of a year, produced me only five
+species out of the fourteen known to exist in the New-Guinea
+district." If it took Wallace, with all the assistance
+that he had from various officials, five years to
+obtain five species, represented by dead birds, how long
+did it take Noah's agents to obtain eighteen species
+represented by two hundred and fifty-two live birds?
+Wallace could only obtain two alive, and for these he
+had to pay five hundred dollars.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>If the antediluvian sinners were any thing like the
+modern ones, Noah must have been richer than the
+Rothschilds, or he never could have obtained their
+services; which he must have done, or it could never
+be truthfully said, "according to all that God commanded
+him, so did he."</p>
+
+<p>The collection of the land-snails alone would be no
+small tax. Seventy-four are peculiar to Great
+Britain: hence there must have been a hundred and
+forty-eight snails collected from that island. Six
+hundred species are found in Southern Europe alone,
+and twelve hundred must have been collected from
+there; eighty in Sicily, ten in Corsica, two hundred
+and sixty-four in the Madeira Islands, a hundred and
+twenty in the Canary Islands, twenty-six in St.
+Helena, sixty-three in Southern Africa, eighty-eight
+in Madagascar, a hundred and twelve in Ceylon, a
+hundred in New Zealand, and others on every large
+and some of the small islands of the globe. The
+world must have been circumnavigated many times
+before the vessel of Magellan was built, and every
+island visited and ransacked ages before the time of
+Captain Cook. But it seems surprising, since these
+voyages must have been performed by the sinful antediluvians,
+that they did not save themselves in their
+ships when the flood came; for vessels that could
+perform such voyages would certainly have survived
+the flood more readily than the clumsy ark.</p>
+
+<p>But was it really done? A thousand men in ten
+years, with all the appliances of modern art,&mdash;steamboats,
+railroads, canals, coaches, and express companies,&mdash;could
+not accomplish it in ten years; nor ten
+times the number of men keep all the animals alive in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span>
+one spot for one year, if they were collected together.</p>
+
+<p>"But," says the Christian, "Noah never did collect
+them: no intelligent person in this day ever supposes
+that he did." What then? "The Bible expressly
+declares that 'they went in unto Noah into
+the ark.' By instinct, such as leads the swallow to
+take its distant flight at the approach of winter, they
+came from all parts of the globe to the ark of
+safety."</p>
+
+<p>It is true that one account does say that they came
+in unto Noah, for there are two very different stories
+of the deluge mixed up in those chapters of Genesis;
+but, although flying birds might perform such a feat
+as going twelve thousand miles to the ark, which
+would be necessary for some, how could other animals
+get there? It would be impossible even for
+some birds. How could the ostriches of Africa, the
+emus of Australia, and the rheas of South America,
+get there,&mdash;birds that never fly? There are three
+species of the rhea, or South-American ostrich; and
+forty-two of these would have a journey of eight
+thousand miles before them, by the shortest route:
+but how could they cross the Atlantic? If they
+went by land, they must have traversed the length of
+the American continent, from Patagonia to Alaska,
+crossed at Behring's Strait when it was frozen, and
+then travelled diagonally across nearly the whole
+continent of Asia to Armenia, after a journey that
+must have required many months for its completion.
+The sloths, that have been confined to South America
+ever since the pliocene period at least, must have
+taken the same route. How they crossed the mountain<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span>
+streams, and lived when passing over broad
+prairies, it would be difficult to say. A mile a day
+would be a rapid rate for these slow travellers, and it
+would therefore require about forty years for them
+to arrive at their destination. But, since the life of a
+sloth is not as long as this, they must have bequeathed
+their journey to their posterity, and they
+to their descendants, born on the way, who must
+have reached the ark before the door was closed.
+The land-snails must have met with still greater
+difficulties. Impelled by most wonderful instinct,
+they commenced their journey full a thousand years
+before the time; and their posterity of the five hundredth
+generation must have made their appearance,
+and been provided with a passage by the venerable
+Noah.</p>
+
+<p>Scott, who wrote a commentary on the Bible seventy
+or eighty years ago, must have seen some of
+these difficulties, though with nothing like the clearness
+with which science enables us to see them now.
+He says, "There must have been a very extraordinary
+miracle wrought, perhaps by the ministration
+of angels, in bringing two of every species to Noah,
+and rendering them submissive to him and peaceable
+with each other; yet it seems not to have made any
+impression on the hardened spectators."</p>
+
+<p>Think of a troop of angels fly-catching, snail-seeking,
+and bug-hunting through all lands, lugging
+through the air, horses, giraffes, elephants, and rhinoceroses,
+and dropping them at the door of the ark.
+One has crossed the Atlantic with rattlesnakes, copperheads,
+and boas twined around him, almost crippling
+his wings with their snaky folds; and another<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span>
+with a brace of skunks, one under each wing, that
+the renewed world may not lack the fragrance of the
+old. What a subject for the pencil of a Raphael or
+Dor&eacute;! Had the "hardened spectators" beheld such a
+scene as this, Noah and his cargo would have been
+cast out of the ark, and the sinners themselves, converted
+by this stupendous miracle, would have taken
+passage therein.</p>
+
+<p>Not only must there have been a succession of most
+stupendous miracles to get the animals to the ark, but
+also to return them to their proper places of abode.
+But few of them could have lived in the neighborhood
+of Ararat, had they been left there. How could
+the polar bear return to his home among the ice-bergs,
+the sloths to the congenial forests of the New
+World, and all the mammals, reptiles, insects, and
+snails to their respective habitats, the homes of their
+ancestors for ages innumerable? To return them
+was just as necessary as to obtain them, and, though
+less difficult, was equally impossible.</p>
+
+<p><i>How could eight persons, all that were saved in the
+ark, attend to all these animals!</i> Nearly all would
+require food and water once a day, and many twice.
+In a menagerie, one man takes care of four cages,&mdash;feeds,
+cleans, and waters the animals. In the ark,
+each person, women included, must have attended
+each day to ten thousand nine hundred and sixty-four
+birds, seven hundred and sixty-six beasts, one
+hundred and fourteen reptiles, one thousand one hundred
+and fifty land-snails, and one hundred and
+eighty-seven thousand five hundred insects.</p>
+
+<p>Few persons have an idea of the difficulty of keeping
+even the common birds of a temperate climate<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span>
+alive in confinement for any length of time. Food
+that is quite suitable in a wild state may be fatal to
+them when they are kept in the house. Linnets feed
+on winter rape-seed in the wild state, but soon die if
+fed upon it in-doors. "They are to be fed," says
+Bechstein, "on summer rape-seed, moistened in water;
+and their food must be varied by the addition of
+millet, radish, cabbage, lettuce and plantain-seeds,
+and sometimes a few bruised melon-seeds or barberries."
+Nightingales, he says, should be fed on meal,
+worms, and fresh ants' eggs: but, if it is not possible
+to get these, a mixture of hard egg, ox-heart minced,
+and white bread may be given; but this often kills the
+birds. No such food would do for Noah's nightingales,
+then, or where would have been the nightingale's
+song? They must have been fed on meal,
+worms, and <i>fresh</i> ant's eggs. How they were obtained,
+we have, of course, no knowledge. Bechstein
+says that larks may be fed with "a paste made of
+grated carrot, white bread soaked in water, and barley
+or wheat meal, all worked together in a mortar.
+In addition to this paste, larks should be supplied
+with poppy-seed, bruised hemp, crumb of bread,
+and plenty of greens, such as lettuce, endive, cabbage,
+with a little lean meat or ant-eggs occasionally."
+He says the cage should be furnished with a piece of
+fresh turf, often renewed, and great attention should
+be paid to cleanliness. The care of the birds in the
+ark probably fell to the women. As they had not
+read Bechstein, or any other author on bird-keeping,&mdash;and
+thousands of the birds must have been total
+strangers to them,&mdash;how did they know what diet to
+supply them with, and where could they get it, supposing
+they had time to supply them at all?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>If the difficulty was great to keep the birds of a
+temperate climate, how much greater must it have
+been to keep tropical birds in a climate altogether
+unsuited to them? The two birds of paradise bought
+by Wallace were fed, he says, on rice, bananas, and
+cockroaches: of the last, he obtained several cans
+from a bake-house at Malta, and thus got his paradise
+birds, by good fortune, to England. But how many
+cans of cockroaches would be necessary for two hundred
+and fifty-two of such birds,&mdash;the number in
+the ark? and where were the bake-houses from
+which the supply might be obtained?</p>
+
+<p>To keep this vast menagerie clean would have required
+a large corps of efficient workers, especially
+when we remember that there was but one door in
+each story, as some suppose; or one door to the
+whole ark, as the story seems to teach, and this door
+was closed; and but one window, and that apparently
+in the roof. The Augean stable, the cleansing of
+which was one of the labors of Hercules, can but
+faintly indicate what must have been the condition of
+the ark in less than a month, supposing the animals
+to subsist as long.</p>
+
+<p><i>Whence came the water that covered the earth to the
+tops of the highest mountains?</i> "All the high hills
+that were under the whole heaven were covered.
+Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and
+the mountains were covered," says the record. And
+to do this, it rained for forty days and forty nights.
+A fall of an inch of water in a day is considered a
+very heavy rain in Great Britain. The heaviest single
+rain recorded fell on the Khasia Hills in India,
+and amounted to thirty inches in twenty-four hours.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span>
+If this deluging rain could have continued for forty
+days and nights, and had it fallen over the entire surface
+of the globe, the amount would only have been
+one hundred feet; which, instead of covering the
+mountains, would not have covered the hills. But,
+of course, such a rain is only possible for a very
+limited time, and on a small portion of the earth's
+surface.</p>
+
+<p>Sir John Leslie, in "The Encyclopedia Britannica,"
+says, "Supposing the vast canopy of air, by some
+sudden change of internal constitution, at once to
+discharge its whole watery store, this precipitate
+would form a sheet of scarcely five inches thick over
+the surface of the globe." But if the water that covered
+the earth above the tops of the highest mountains
+came by rain, it must have rained seven
+hundred feet a day for forty days! or there must
+have fallen each day, according to Sir John Leslie's
+estimate, more than fourteen hundred times as much
+water on the earth as the atmosphere contained!</p>
+
+<p>But the writer says, "The fountains of the great
+deep were broken up." To the Jews, who supposed,
+with David, that God had founded the earth upon the
+seas, and established it upon the floods, this meant
+something; but, in the light of geology, we see that
+it only demonstrates the ignorance of the man who
+wrote and the people that believed the story.</p>
+
+<p>Adam Clarke, commenting on this passage, says,
+"It appears that an immense quantity of water occupied
+the centre of the antediluvian earth; and, as this
+burst forth by the order of God, the circumambient
+strata must sink in order to fill up the vacuum occasioned
+by the elevated waters." If true, it would not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span>
+have assisted in drowning the world one spoonful.
+For if the strata sank anywhere to fill the hollow previously
+occupied by the water, it would only make
+the mountains so much higher in comparison: hence
+it would require just that much extra water to cover
+them. In the light of geology, however, the notion
+is sufficiently absurd. A mile and a half deep, the
+earth's interior is hot enough to convert water into
+steam; there is, therefore, no chance for water to
+exist in its centre, or anywhere near it.</p>
+
+<p><i>It is as great a difficulty to discover where the water
+went when the flood was over.</i> We are told that the
+fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven
+were stopped, and the rain was restrained. But this
+could do nothing towards diminishing the water. All
+that it could possibly accomplish would be to prevent
+the rise of the water. But we are also told that "God
+made a wind to pass over the earth." All that the
+wind could do, however, would be to convey to the
+atmosphere the moisture it took up in vapor; and
+this could not have lowered the water a yard. The
+highest mountain, Kunchinginga, is more than twenty-eight
+thousand feet high; the flood prevailed one
+hundred and fifty days, and abated two hundred and
+twenty-five; and if this abatement was done by the
+wind, it must have blown an ocean of water from the
+entire surface of the earth, one hundred and twenty-five
+deep, every day for eight months! All the hurricanes
+that ever blew, blowing at once, would be the
+gentlest zephyr of a summer's eve, compared with
+such a wind as that; and by what possibility could
+such a craft as the ark survive the storm?</p>
+
+<p>A question, proper to be asked is, <i>How were the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span>
+animals supplied with light?</i> and how did the attendants
+see to wait upon them in the first and second stories
+of the ark? There was but one window, and that
+only twenty-two inches in size, and it appears to have
+been in the third story. It was a day when kerosene
+was unknown, and tallow dips were uninvented. How
+did these animals live in the darkness? and, above all,
+how did Noah and his family supply their wants? It
+could have been no easy or pleasant thing to wait
+upon hungry lions, tigers, crocodiles, and rattlesnakes
+in the dark, to say nothing of the danger.</p>
+
+<p><i>How did they breathe?</i> There was but one twenty-two
+inch window; the ark was "pitched within and
+without with pitch;" "The Lord shut him in." Talk
+of the Black Hole of Calcutta: it must have been
+pure as the breath of morning compared with the
+condition of the ark in one day.</p>
+
+<p><i>Where did they obtain water for drink?</i> Supposing
+all the additional water needed to drown the world
+was fresh, when mingled with the water of the sea,
+as much as one-tenth of it would be salt water, and
+this would render it utterly unfit for drink. Provision
+must therefore have been made for water; and a
+space certainly half as large as the ark must have
+been taken up for the water necessary for this immense
+multitude.</p>
+
+<p><i>The fish, mollusks, crustaceans (such as our crabs and
+lobsters), and all corals, must have died if such a flood
+had taken place</i>,&mdash;the fresh-water fish from the salt
+water at once added to their proper element, and
+the salt-water fish and other marine forms from so
+large an addition of fresh water. For months, there
+could have been no shore: what is now the margin<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span>
+of the sea was buried miles deep; and all the fucoidal
+vegetation, upon which myriads of animals subsist,
+must have perished, and the animals with it, if the
+change in the constitution of the water had not killed
+them. Every time a man swallows an oyster, he has
+evidence that the Noachian deluge did not take
+place.</p>
+
+<p><i>The plants must have perished also.</i> How many of
+our trees, to say nothing of the grasses and feeble
+plants, could endure a soaking of nearly twelve
+months' duration? Some of the very hardiest seeds
+might survive, but the number could not be large.
+The present condition of vegetation upon the globe
+is another evidence, then, that this deluge did not
+take place.</p>
+
+<p><i>When the ark landed on Mount Ararat, and the
+animals went forth, how did they subsist?</i> As they
+went down the mountains, the carnivorous animals
+would have devoured a large portion of the herbivorous
+animals saved in the ark. Beside the lions,
+tigers, leopards, ounces, and other carnivorous mammals,
+amounting to eight hundred and ninety-two, there
+were in the ark six hundred and sixty-six eagles, for
+there are forty-eight species; one hundred and forty-four
+buzzards, fourteen hundred and forty-two falcons,
+one hundred and forty hawks, two hundred and thirty-eight
+vultures, and eight hundred and ninety six owls.
+What chance would a few sheep, rabbits and squirrels,
+rats and mice, doves and chickens, have, among
+this ravenous multitude? How could the ants escape,
+with ant-eaters, aard-varks and pangolins on the
+watch for them as soon as they made their appearance?
+There were as many dogs as hares, as many<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span>
+cats as mice. How long a lease of life could the
+sheep, hares, and mice, calculate upon? Before the
+herbivorous animals had multiplied, so as to furnish
+the carnivorous animals with food, they must all have
+been destroyed, after all the pains taken for their preservation.
+Noah should have given the herbivora, at
+least a year's start, especially since the vegetation of
+the globe was so deficient.</p>
+
+<p>But we are told that the species of animals may
+have been much fewer in the days of Noah; and,
+therefore, much less room would be necessary. A
+single pair of cats, say some, may have produced all
+the animals of the cat kind; a pair of dogs, all the
+animals that belong to the dog family. Such an explanation
+might have been given when zo&ouml;logy was
+little known, and geology had no existence; but there
+is no place for it now. Animals change, it is true,
+and all species have probably been produced from a
+few originals; but the process by which this is accomplished
+is so slow in its operation, that we have no
+knowledge of the formation of a new species. We
+know that lions, tigers, and cats of various species,
+existed long before the time of the deluge, and dogs,
+wolves and foxes; and we find mummied cats, dogs,
+and other animals in Egypt, as old or older than the
+deluge, so little changed from those of the present
+time in the same locality, that we cannot recognize
+any difference between them.</p>
+
+<p><i>"You seem to forget that all things are possible with
+God: he could have packed these animals into an ark
+of one-half the size, brought them altogether in the
+twinkling of an eye, and returned them as rapidly."</i></p>
+
+<p>And you seem to forget that the account in Genesis<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span>
+gives us no hint of any such miracle. Noah was
+to take the animals to him, and to take unto him of all
+food that is eaten; and, as Hugh Miller remarks,
+"the expedient of having recourse to supposititious
+miracle in order to get over a difficulty insurmountable
+on every natural principle, is not of the nature of
+an argument, but simply an evidence of the want of
+it. Argument is at an end when supposititious miracle
+is introduced." But, if a miracle was worked, it
+was not one, but ten thousand of the most stupendous
+miracles, and entirely unnecessary ones. This,
+the Rev. Dr. Pye Smith saw, when he said, "We cannot
+represent to ourselves the idea of all land animals
+being brought into one small spot, from the polar
+regions, the torrid zone, and all the other climates of
+Asia, Africa, Europe, and America, Australia, and the
+thousands of islands,&mdash;their preservation and provision,
+and the final disposal of them,&mdash;without
+bringing up the idea of miracles more stupendous
+than any that are recorded in Scripture. The
+great decisive miracle of Christianity,&mdash;the resurrection
+of the Lord Jesus,&mdash;sinks down before it."</p>
+
+<p>It is a favorite method with the advocates of special
+revelations to show their agreement with the operations
+of natural law, till a difficulty is met with that
+cannot be answered, when they flee at once to miracle
+to save them. But, in this case, miracle itself
+cannot save them.</p>
+
+<p>Geology furnishes us with evidence that no such
+deluge has taken place. According to Hugh Miller,
+"In various parts of the world, such as Auvergne in
+Central France, and along the flanks of Etna, there are
+cones of long-extinct or long-slumbering volcanoes,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span>
+which, though of at least triple the antiquity of the
+Noachian deluge, and though composed of the ordinary
+incoherent materials, exhibit no marks of denudation.
+According to the calculations of Sir Charles
+Lyell, no devastating flood could have passed over
+the forest-zone of Etna during the last twelve thousand
+years."</p>
+
+<p>Arch&aelig;ology enters her protest equally against it.
+We have abundance of Egyptian mummies, statues,
+inscriptions, paintings, and other representations of
+Egyptian life belonging to a much earlier period than
+the deluge. With only such modifications as time
+slowly introduced, we find the people, their language,
+and their habits, continuing after that time, as they
+had done for centuries before. Lepsius, writing from
+the pyramids of Memphis, in 1843, says, "We are
+still busy with structures, sculptures, and inscriptions,
+which are to be classed, by means of the now
+more accurately determined groups of kings, in an
+epoch of highly flourishing civilization, as far back as
+the fourth millennium before Christ." That is one thousand
+six hundred and fifty-six years before the time
+of the flood. Lyell says that "Chevalier Bunsen, in
+his elaborate and philosophical work on ancient Egypt,
+has satisfied not a few of the learned, by an appeal to
+monumental inscriptions still extant, that the successive
+dynasties of kings may be traced back without
+a break, to Menes, and that the date of his reign
+would correspond with the year 3,640 B.C.;" that is
+nearly thirteen hundred years before the time of the
+deluge. Strange that the whole world should have
+been drowned and the Egyptians never knew it!</p>
+
+<p>From the "Types of Mankind," we learn that the fact<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span>
+is "asserted by Lepsius, and familiar to all Egyptologists,
+that negro and other races already existed in
+Northern Africa, on the Upper Nile, 2,300 years
+B.C."</p>
+
+<p>But this is only forty-eight years after the deluge.
+What kind of a family had Noah? Was amalgamation
+practised by any of Noah's sons? If all the
+human occupants of the ark were Caucasians, how
+did they produce negro races in forty-eight years?
+The facts again compel us to announce the fabulous
+character of this Genesical story of the deluge.</p>
+
+<p><i>"No intelligent person now believes that it was a
+total deluge: Buckland, Pye Smith, Miller, Hitchcock,
+and all Christian geologists, agree that it was a partial
+deluge, and the account can be so explained."</i></p>
+
+<p>How strange that God should dictate an account of
+the deluge that led everybody to a false conclusion
+with regard to it, till science taught them a better.
+But let us read what the account says, and see
+whether it can be explained to signify a partial
+deluge. To save the Bible from its inevitable fate,
+such men as Buckland, Smith, Miller, Hitchcock, and
+other Bible apologists, it is evident from their writings,
+were ready to resort to any scheme, however
+wild.</p>
+
+<p>I read (Gen. vi. 7), "I will destroy both man and
+beast, and the creeping thing." How could a partial
+deluge accomplish this? (v. 13); "The end of all flesh
+is come before me. I will destroy them with the
+earth." How could all flesh be destroyed with the
+earth by any other than a total deluge? (v. 17);
+"I do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy
+all flesh wherein is the breath of life, from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span>
+under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth
+shall die." Not only is man to be destroyed, but all
+flesh wherein is the breath of life, from under
+heaven, and every thing in the earth is to die.
+Can this be tortured to mean a partial deluge? (vii.
+19); "And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon
+the earth; and all the high hills that were under
+the whole heaven were covered; and all flesh died
+that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of
+cattle, and of beast, and of creeping thing that creepeth
+upon the earth, and every man. All in whose
+nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the
+dry land, died. And every living substance was destroyed
+which was upon the face of the ground, both
+man and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl
+of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the
+earth, and Noah only remained alive, and they that
+were with him in the ark." Had the man who wrote
+this story been a lawyer, and had he known how
+these would-be-Bible-believers, and at the same time
+geologists, would seek to pervert his meaning, he
+could not have more carefully worded his account.
+It is not possible for any man to express the idea of a
+total flood more definitely than this man has done.
+He does not merely say the hills were covered, but
+"<i>all</i>" the hills were covered; and lest you should
+think that he certainly did not mean the most elevated,
+he is careful to say "all the <i>high</i>" hills were covered;
+and lest some one should say he only meant the hills
+in that part of the country, he says expressly "all the
+high hills that were <i>under the whole heaven were covered</i>."
+He is even so cautious as to introduce the
+phrase "<i>whole</i> heaven," lest some one in its absence<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span>
+might still think that the deluge was a partial one.
+To make its universality still more evident, he says,
+"All flesh died that moved upon the earth." This
+would have been sufficiently definite for most persons,
+but not so for him; he particularizes so that none may
+escape,&mdash;"both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast,
+and of creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth,
+and every man." To leave no possibility of mistake,
+he adds, "all in whose nostrils was the breath of life,
+of all that was in the dry land, died." Can any thing
+more be needed? The writer seems to see that some
+theological professor may even yet try to make this
+mean a partial deluge; and he therefore says, "Every
+living substance was destroyed which was upon the
+face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the
+creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; they
+were destroyed from the earth." Is it possible to
+add to the strength of this? He thinks it is; and he
+therefore says, "Noah only remained alive, and they
+that were with him in the ark." Could any truthful
+man write this and then mean that less than a hundredth
+part of the earth's surface was covered. If
+not a total flood, why save the animals, above all the
+birds? All that Noah and his family need to have
+done would have been to move out of the region till
+the storm was over. If a partial flood, how could the
+ark have rested on the mountains of Ararat? Ararat
+itself is seventeen thousand feet high, and it rises
+from a plateau that is seven thousand feet above the
+sea-level. A flood that enabled the ark to float on to
+that mountain could not have been far from universal;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span>
+and, when such a flood is accounted for on
+scientific principles, it will be just as easy to account
+for a total flood.</p>
+
+<p><i>"The flood was only intended to destroy man, and
+therefore only covered those parts of the earth that
+were occupied by him."</i></p>
+
+<p>The Bible states, however,
+that it was intended to destroy every thing wherein
+was the breath of life; and your account and the Bible
+account do not at all agree. But, if man was intended
+to be destroyed, the flood must have been wide-spread.
+We know that Africa was occupied before
+that time, and had been for thousands of years, by
+various races. We learn, from the recent discoveries
+in the Swiss Lakes, that man was in Switzerland before
+that time; in France, as Boucher's and Rigollet's
+discoveries prove; in Great Britain, as the caves in
+Devonshire show; in North America, as the fossil
+human skull beneath Table Mountain demonstrates.
+Hence, for the flood to destroy man alone at so recent
+a period, it must have been as wide spread as the
+earth.</p>
+
+<p>Even according to the Bible account, the garden of
+Eden, where man was first placed, was somewhere
+near the Euphrates; and in sixteen hundred years
+the race must have rambled over a large part of the
+earth's surface. The highest mountains in the world,
+the Himalayas, are within two thousand miles of the
+Euphrates. That splendid country, India, would
+have been occupied long before the time of the
+deluge; and, on the flanks of the Himalayas, man
+could have laughed at any flood that natural causes
+could possibly produce.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>"How do you account, then, for these traditions of
+a deluge that we find all over the globe?"</i></p>
+
+<p>Nothing more easy. In all times floods have occurred;
+some by heavy and long-continued rains,
+others by the bursting of lake-barriers or the irruption
+of the sea; and wherever traditions of these
+have been met with, men with the Bible story in their
+minds have at once attributed their origin to the
+Noachian deluge.</p>
+
+<p><i>"But Jesus and the apostles indorse the account of
+the deluge."</i></p>
+
+<p>Granted; but does that transform a fable into a
+fact? They believed the story just as our modern
+theologians believe it; because they were taught it
+when they were children, and had not learned better.
+Jesus says (Matt. xxv. 37-39), "But as the days of Noe
+were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
+For, as in the days that were before the flood they
+were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in
+marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
+and knew not until the flood came and took them all
+away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be."
+If the man had regarded the story as false, he never
+would have referred to it in such a manner. And, in
+this manifestation of credulity on the part of Jesus,
+we can see the very false estimate placed upon him
+by so large a portion of the people of this country.
+Let the truth be spoken, though Jesus and all other
+idols be overthrown. So he would say, if alive, or
+he was not as good and intelligent a man as I think
+he was.</p>
+
+<p>By this story the Bible stands or falls as a divine<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span>
+book. It falls, as we see, and takes its place with
+all other human fallible productions. For knowledge,
+we go to Nature, our universal mother, who gives her
+Bible to every soul, and preaches her everlasting
+gospel to all people.</p>
+
+<div class="trn"><b>Transcriber's Note:</b><br />
+Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note. Variant spellings have been retained.
+Hyphenation has been standardised.</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Deluge in the Light of Modern
+Science, by William Denton
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DELUGE IN LIGHT OF MODERN SCIENCE ***
+
+***** This file should be named 25975-h.htm or 25975-h.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/2/5/9/7/25975/
+
+Produced by Bryan Ness, Stephen Blundell and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from scans of public domain works at the
+University of Michigan's Making of America collection.)
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+
+</pre>
+
+</body>
+</html>
diff --git a/25975-page-images/f001.png b/25975-page-images/f001.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5a5361c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/25975-page-images/f001.png
diff --git a/25975-page-images/f002.png b/25975-page-images/f002.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..19029b2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/25975-page-images/f002.png
diff --git a/25975-page-images/p003.png b/25975-page-images/p003.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..adf29d9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/25975-page-images/p003.png
diff --git a/25975-page-images/p004.png b/25975-page-images/p004.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bdee016
--- /dev/null
+++ b/25975-page-images/p004.png
diff --git a/25975-page-images/p005.png b/25975-page-images/p005.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bc41d09
--- /dev/null
+++ b/25975-page-images/p005.png
diff --git a/25975-page-images/p006.png b/25975-page-images/p006.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8e752ac
--- /dev/null
+++ b/25975-page-images/p006.png
diff --git a/25975-page-images/p007.png b/25975-page-images/p007.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ccdabbf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/25975-page-images/p007.png
diff --git a/25975-page-images/p008.png b/25975-page-images/p008.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1a88345
--- /dev/null
+++ b/25975-page-images/p008.png
diff --git a/25975-page-images/p009.png b/25975-page-images/p009.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..394cb13
--- /dev/null
+++ b/25975-page-images/p009.png
diff --git a/25975-page-images/p010.png b/25975-page-images/p010.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d5d704e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/25975-page-images/p010.png
diff --git a/25975-page-images/p011.png b/25975-page-images/p011.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b2da629
--- /dev/null
+++ b/25975-page-images/p011.png
diff --git a/25975-page-images/p012.png b/25975-page-images/p012.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..879a128
--- /dev/null
+++ b/25975-page-images/p012.png
diff --git a/25975-page-images/p013.png b/25975-page-images/p013.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a5141d4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/25975-page-images/p013.png
diff --git a/25975-page-images/p014.png b/25975-page-images/p014.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8af8977
--- /dev/null
+++ b/25975-page-images/p014.png
diff --git a/25975-page-images/p015.png b/25975-page-images/p015.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..58e32e4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/25975-page-images/p015.png
diff --git a/25975-page-images/p016.png b/25975-page-images/p016.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9e09376
--- /dev/null
+++ b/25975-page-images/p016.png
diff --git a/25975-page-images/p017.png b/25975-page-images/p017.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..35e9a30
--- /dev/null
+++ b/25975-page-images/p017.png
diff --git a/25975-page-images/p018.png b/25975-page-images/p018.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..84f943a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/25975-page-images/p018.png
diff --git a/25975-page-images/p019.png b/25975-page-images/p019.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6d2ae90
--- /dev/null
+++ b/25975-page-images/p019.png
diff --git a/25975-page-images/p020.png b/25975-page-images/p020.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a9e1e01
--- /dev/null
+++ b/25975-page-images/p020.png
diff --git a/25975-page-images/p021.png b/25975-page-images/p021.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bb57877
--- /dev/null
+++ b/25975-page-images/p021.png
diff --git a/25975-page-images/p022.png b/25975-page-images/p022.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..90e0c08
--- /dev/null
+++ b/25975-page-images/p022.png
diff --git a/25975-page-images/p023.png b/25975-page-images/p023.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8b3492c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/25975-page-images/p023.png
diff --git a/25975-page-images/p024.png b/25975-page-images/p024.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4db4221
--- /dev/null
+++ b/25975-page-images/p024.png
diff --git a/25975-page-images/p025.png b/25975-page-images/p025.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..efb4b8c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/25975-page-images/p025.png
diff --git a/25975-page-images/p026.png b/25975-page-images/p026.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..26b1659
--- /dev/null
+++ b/25975-page-images/p026.png
diff --git a/25975-page-images/p027.png b/25975-page-images/p027.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6b8720a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/25975-page-images/p027.png
diff --git a/25975-page-images/p028.png b/25975-page-images/p028.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e9a3c57
--- /dev/null
+++ b/25975-page-images/p028.png
diff --git a/25975-page-images/p029.png b/25975-page-images/p029.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9714a44
--- /dev/null
+++ b/25975-page-images/p029.png
diff --git a/25975-page-images/p030.png b/25975-page-images/p030.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..16d311d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/25975-page-images/p030.png
diff --git a/25975-page-images/p031.png b/25975-page-images/p031.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e863536
--- /dev/null
+++ b/25975-page-images/p031.png
diff --git a/25975-page-images/p032.png b/25975-page-images/p032.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bb41487
--- /dev/null
+++ b/25975-page-images/p032.png
diff --git a/25975-page-images/p033.png b/25975-page-images/p033.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2b06238
--- /dev/null
+++ b/25975-page-images/p033.png
diff --git a/25975-page-images/p034.png b/25975-page-images/p034.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e05c061
--- /dev/null
+++ b/25975-page-images/p034.png
diff --git a/25975-page-images/p035.png b/25975-page-images/p035.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fbcca93
--- /dev/null
+++ b/25975-page-images/p035.png
diff --git a/25975-page-images/p036.png b/25975-page-images/p036.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5cffbf1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/25975-page-images/p036.png
diff --git a/25975.txt b/25975.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6e8bd3f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/25975.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,1314 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Deluge in the Light of Modern Science, by
+William Denton
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Deluge in the Light of Modern Science
+       A Discourse
+
+Author: William Denton
+
+Release Date: July 6, 2008 [EBook #25975]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DELUGE IN LIGHT OF MODERN SCIENCE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Bryan Ness, Stephen Blundell and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from scans of public domain works at the
+University of Michigan's Making of America collection.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+         THE DELUGE
+
+           IN THE
+
+  LIGHT OF MODERN SCIENCE.
+
+
+        A Discourse.
+
+
+             BY
+       WILLIAM DENTON.
+
+
+     WELLESLEY, MASS.:
+ DENTON PUBLISHING COMPANY.
+           1882.
+
+
+
+
+THE DELUGE IN THE LIGHT OF MODERN SCIENCE.
+
+
+If the Bible is God's book, we ought to know it. If the Creator of the
+universe has spoken to man, how important that we should listen to his
+voice and obey his instructions! On the other hand, if the Bible is not
+God's book, we ought to know it. Why should we go through the world with
+a lie in our right hand, dupes of the ignorant men who preceded us? It
+can never be for our soul's benefit to cherish a falsehood.
+
+Science is, perhaps, the best test that we can apply to decide the
+question. Science is really a knowledge of what Nature has done, and is
+doing; and since the upholders of the divinity of the Bible believe that
+it proceeded from the Author of nature, if their faith is true, it
+cannot possibly disagree with what science teaches.
+
+Science is a fiery furnace, that has consumed a thousand delusions, and
+must consume all that remain. We cast into it astrology and alchemy, and
+their ashes barely remain to tell of their existence. Old notions of the
+earth and heavens went in, and vanished as their dupes gazed upon them.
+Old religions, old gods, have become as the incense that was burned
+before their altars.
+
+I purpose to try the Bible in its searching fire. Fear not, my brother:
+it can but burn the straw and stubble; if gold, it will shine as bright
+after the fiery ordeal as before, and reflect as perfectly the image of
+truth.
+
+The Bible abounds with marvellous stories,--stories that we should at
+once reject from their intrinsic improbability, not to say
+impossibility, if we should find them in any other book. But, among all
+the stories, there is none that equals the account of the deluge, as
+given in the sixth, seventh, and eighth chapters of Genesis. It towers
+above the rest as Mount Washington does above the New-England hills;
+and, as travellers delight to climb the loftiest peaks, I suppose that
+many would be pleased to examine this lofty story, and see how the world
+of truth and actuality looks from its summit.
+
+According to the account, in less than two thousand years after God had
+created all things, and pronounced them very good, he became thoroughly
+dissatisfied with every living thing, and determined to destroy them
+with the earth. He thus expresses himself: "I will destroy man, whom I
+have created, from the face of the earth,--both man and beast, and the
+creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I
+have made them." Again he says to Noah, "The end of all flesh is come
+before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them, and
+behold I will destroy them with the earth."
+
+Why should the beasts, birds, and creeping things be destroyed? What had
+the larks, the doves, and the bob-o-links done? What had the squirrels
+and the tortoises been guilty of, that they should be destroyed?
+
+He proceeds to inform Noah how he will do this: "And behold I, even I,
+do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein
+is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the
+earth shall die." And we are subsequently informed that "every thing
+that was in the dry land died." But why not every thing in the sea? Were
+the dogs sinners, and the dog-fish saints? Had the sheep been more
+guilty than the sharks? Had the pigeons become utterly corrupt, and the
+pikes remained perfectly innocent? It may be, that the apparent
+impossibility of drowning them by a flood suggested to the writer of the
+story the necessity of saving them alive.
+
+But Noah was righteous; and God determined to save him and his family,
+eight persons, and by their instrumentality to save alive animals
+sufficient to stock the world again after its destruction.
+
+To do this, Noah was commanded to build an ark, three hundred cubits
+long, fifty broad, and thirty high. It was to be made with three
+stories, and furnished with one door, and one window a cubit wide. Into
+this ark were to be taken two of every sort of living thing, and of
+clean beasts and of birds seven of every sort, male and female, and food
+sufficient for them all.
+
+There are differences of opinion about the length of the cubit: most
+probably it was about eighteen inches; but taking it at twenty-two
+inches, the largest estimate that I believe theologians have made, the
+ark was then five hundred and fifty feet long, ninety-one feet eight
+inches broad, and fifty-five feet high. Leaving space for the floors,
+which would need to be very strong, each story was about seventeen feet
+high; and the total cubical contents of the ark were about one hundred
+and two thousand cubic yards. Scott, in his commentary, makes it as
+small as sixty-nine thousand one hundred and twenty yards; but the
+necessity for room was not as well understood in his day. Each floor of
+the ark contained five thousand six hundred and one square yards, and
+the three floors sixteen thousand eight hundred and three square yards,
+the total standing-room of the ark.
+
+Into this were to be taken fourteen of each kind of fowl of the air or
+bird. How many kinds or species of birds are there? When Adam Clarke
+wrote his commentary, two thousand three hundred and seventy-two species
+had been recognized. Ornithology was then but in its infancy, and man's
+knowledge of living forms was very limited. Lesson, according to Hugh
+Miller, enumerates the birds at six thousand two hundred and sixty-six
+species; Gray, in his "Genera of Birds," estimates the number on the
+globe at eight thousand. Let us not crowd Noah, but take the six
+thousand two hundred and sixty-six species of Lesson. Fourteen of each
+of these would give us eighty-seven thousand seven hundred and
+twenty-four birds,--from the humming-bird, the little flying jewel, to
+the ostrich that fans the heated air of the desert,--or over five for
+every yard of standing-room in the ark. If spaces were left for the
+attendants to pass among them, to attend to the supply of their daily
+wants, the birds alone would crowd the ark.
+
+But, beside the birds, there were to be taken into the ark two of every
+sort of unclean beast and fourteen of every sort of clean beast. The
+most recent zoological authorities enumerate two thousand and
+sixty-seven species of mammals, or, as they are commonly called, beasts.
+Of cetacea, or whale-like mammals, sixty-five; ruminantia, or
+cud-chewers, one hundred and seventy-seven; pachydermata, or
+thick-skinned mammals, such as the horse, hog, and elephant, forty-one;
+edentata, like the sloth and ant-eater, thirty-five; rodentia, or
+gnawers, such as the rat, squirrel, and beaver, six hundred and
+seventeen; carnivora, or flesh-eaters, four hundred and forty-six;
+cheiroptera, or bats, three hundred and twenty-eight; quadrumana, or
+monkeys, two hundred and twenty-one; and marsupialia, or pouched
+mammals, like the opossum and kangaroo, one hundred and thirty-seven. If
+we leave out the cetacea, that live in the water, and the cud-chewers,
+which are the clean beasts, we have one thousand eight hundred and
+twenty-five species; and male and female of these, a total of three
+thousand six hundred and fifty.
+
+But, besides these, there were to be taken into the ark fourteen of
+every kind of clean beast. And what are clean beasts? The scriptural
+answer is, animals that divide the hoof and chew the cud; and of these
+at least one hundred and seventy-seven species are known. Fourteen of
+each of these added, make a total of six thousand one hundred and
+twenty-eight mammals, from the mouse to the elephant. These beasts could
+not be piled one upon another like cord-wood; they could not be
+promiscuously crowded together. The sheep would need careful protection
+from the lions, tigers, and wolves; the elephant and other ponderous
+beasts would require stalls of great thickness; much room would be
+required to enable them to obtain needful exercise, and for the
+attendants to supply them with food and water; and a vessel of the size
+of the ark would be taxed to provide for these beasts alone; and to
+crowd in, and preserve alive, beasts and birds, was an absolute
+impossibility.
+
+But there are of reptiles six hundred and fifty-seven species; and Noah
+was to take into the ark two of every sort of creeping thing. Two
+hundred of these reptiles are, however, aquatic: hence water would not
+seriously affect them; but crocodiles, lizards, iguanas, tree-frogs,
+horned frogs, thunder-snakes, chicken-snakes, brittlesnakes,
+rattlesnakes, copperheads, asps, cobras de capello, whose bite is
+certain death, and a host of others, must be provided for. It would not
+do to allow these disagreeable individuals to crawl about the ark; and
+nine hundred and fourteen of them would require considerable space,
+whether they could obtain it or not.
+
+By this time, the ark is doubly crowded; but its living cargo is not yet
+completed. A dense cloud of insects, and a vast army destitute of wings,
+make their appearance, and clamor for admission. The number of
+articulates that must have been provided for is estimated at seven
+hundred and fifty thousand species,--from the butterflies of Brazil,
+fourteen inches from the tip of one wing to the tip of the other, to the
+almost invisible gnat, that dances in the summer's beam. Ants, beetles,
+flies, bugs, fleas, mosquitoes, wasps, bees, moths, butterflies,
+spiders, scorpions, grasshoppers, locusts, myriapods, canker-worms,
+wriggling, crawling, creeping, flying, male and female, here they come,
+and all must be provided for.
+
+Nor are these the last. The air-breathing land-snails, of which we know
+four thousand six hundred species, could never have survived a twelve
+months' soaking; and they must therefore be cared for. The nine thousand
+two hundred of these add no little to the discomfort of the
+trebly-crowded ark.
+
+Now let the flood come: all are lodged in the ark of safety, and are
+ready for a year's voyage. But we forget: the ark has not yet received
+one-half of its cargo. The command given unto Noah was, "Take thou unto
+thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee; and it
+shall be for food for thee and for them;" and we are expressly told that
+"according to all that God commanded Noah, so did he."
+
+Food for how long? The flood began in the "sixth hundredth year of
+Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month."
+Noah, his family, and the animals, went in seven days before this time,
+and left the ark the six hundred and first year of Noah's life, the
+second month, and the twenty-seventh day of the month. They were
+therefore in the ark for one year and seventeen days.
+
+What a quantity of hay would be required, the material most easily
+obtained! An elephant eats four hundred pounds of hay in twenty-four
+hours. Since there are two species of elephants, the African and the
+Indian, there must have been four elephants in the ark; and, supposing
+them to live upon hay, they would require three hundred tons. There are
+at least seven species of the rhinoceros; and fourteen of these, at
+seventy-five tons each, would consume no less than one thousand and
+fifty tons. The two thousand four hundred and seventy-eight clean
+beasts,--oxen, elk, giraffes, camels, deer, antelope, sheep, goats, with
+the horses, zebras, asses, hippopotami, rodents, and marsupials--could
+not have required less than four thousand five hundred tons; making a
+total of five thousand eight hundred and fifty tons. A ton of hay
+occupies about eighteen cubic yards; and the quantity of hay required
+would fill a hundred and five thousand three hundred cubic yards of
+space, or more than the entire capacity of the ark.
+
+If these animals were fed on other substances than hay, the extra
+difficulty of obtaining and preserving those substances would
+counterbalance any advantage that might be gained by the economy of
+space.
+
+A vast quantity of grain would be necessary for thousands of birds,
+rodents, marsupials, and other animals; and large granaries would be
+required for its storage.
+
+What flesh would be needed for the lions, tigers, leopards, ounces,
+wild-cats, wolves, bears, hyenas, jackals, dogs, and foxes, martens,
+weasels, eagles, condors, vultures, buzzards, falcons, hawks, kites,
+owls, as well as crocodiles and serpents! Not one but would eat its
+weight in a month, and some much more. A full-grown lion eats fifteen
+pounds of flesh in a day: there are two species of lions; and the four
+would eat twenty-two thousand pounds in a year. There would be, at
+least, three thousand animals feeding upon flesh; and, if we calculate
+that they averaged two pounds of flesh a day, this would give a total of
+more than two million and a quarter pounds of flesh to be stored up and
+distributed. And since dried, salted, or smoked meat would not answer,
+this flesh must have been taken into the ark alive. It would be equal to
+more than thirty thousand sheep at seventy-five pounds each; a great
+addition to the original cargo, and necessitating an extra quantity of
+hay for their food, till their turn came to be eaten.
+
+Fish would be required for the otters, minks, pelicans, of which there
+are eight species, and must therefore have been fifty-six individuals in
+the ark; one hundred and five gulls, for there are fifteen species; one
+hundred and twelve cormorants, forty-nine gannets, one hundred and forty
+terns, two hundred and eighty-seven kingfishers, beside storks, herons,
+spoonbills, penguins, albatrosses, and a host of others; mollusks for
+the oyster-catcher, turnstone, and other birds.
+
+The fish could not be preserved after death in any way to answer for
+food, and must therefore have been alive: large tanks for the purpose of
+keeping them would take up considerable of the ark's space. The water in
+such tanks would soon become unfitted for the respiration of the fish,
+and there must have been some provision, by air-pumps or otherwise, for
+charging the water with the air essential to their existence.
+
+Many animals live upon insects; and this must have been the most
+difficult part of the provision to procure. There are nineteen species
+of goatsuckers; and there must have been in the ark two hundred and
+sixty-six individuals. These birds feed upon flies, moths, beetles, and
+other insects. What an innumerable multitude must have been provided for
+the goatsuckers alone! But there are a hundred and thirty-seven species
+of fly-catchers; and Noah must have had a fly-catcher family of nineteen
+hundred and eighteen individuals to supply with appropriate food. There
+are thirty-seven species of bee-eaters; and there must have been five
+hundred and eighteen of these birds to supply with bees. A very large
+apiary would be required to supply their needs. But, beside these,
+insects for swallows, swifts, martins, shrikes, thrushes, orioles,
+sparrows, the beautiful trogans and jacamars, moles, shrews, hedgehogs,
+and a multitude of others, too numerous to mention, but not too numerous
+to eat. Ants, also, for the ant-eaters of America, the aard-vark of
+Africa, and the pangolin of Asia. The great ant-eater of South America
+is an animal sometimes measuring eight feet in length. It lives
+exclusively on ants, which it procures by tearing open their hills with
+its hooked claws, and then drawing its long tongue, which is covered
+with glutinous saliva, over the swarms which rush out to defend their
+dwelling. Many bushels of ants would be needed for the pair of
+ant-eaters before the ark landed on Ararat. How were all the insects
+caught, and kept for the use of all these animals for more than a year?
+A hundred men could not catch a sufficient number in six months. And, if
+caught, how could they be preserved, together with the original stock of
+insects necessary to supply the world after the deluge? Some insects eat
+only bark; others, resinous secretions, the pith, solid wood, leaves,
+sap in the veins, as the aphid, flowers, pollen, and honey. Wood, bark,
+resin, and honey might have been supplied; but how could green leaves,
+sap, flowers and pollen, be furnished to those insects absolutely
+requiring them for existence? Thirty species of insects feed on the
+nettle, but not one of them could live on dried nettles. Roesel
+calculates that two hundred species subsist on the oak; but the oak must
+be in a growing condition to supply them with food. In no other way,
+then, could the insects have been preserved alive than by large
+green-houses, the heat so applied as to suit the plants of both
+temperate and tropical climates, and the insects so distributed among
+them, that each could obtain its appropriate nourishment.
+
+Fruit would be necessary for the four hundred and forty-two monkeys, for
+the plantain-eaters, the fruit-pigeons of the Spice Islands that feed on
+nutmegs, for the toucans and the flocks of parrots, parroquets,
+cockatoos, and other fruit-eating birds. As they did not know how to can
+fruit in those days, and dried fruit would be altogether unsuitable,
+there must have been a large green-house for raising all manner of fruit
+necessary for the frugivorous multitude.
+
+_How were the various animals obtained?_ The command given to Noah was,
+"Two of every sort shalt thou _bring_ into the ark."
+
+Animals, as is now well known, belong to limited centres, outside of
+which they are never found in a natural state; and naturalists know that
+these centres were established ages before the time when the deluge is
+supposed to have occurred.
+
+Thus, Hugh Miller, in his "Testimony of the Rocks," says, "We now know
+that every great continent has its own peculiar fauna; that the original
+centres of distribution must have been, not one, but many; further, that
+the areas or circles around these centres must have been occupied by
+their pristine animals in ages long anterior to that of the Noachian
+Deluge; nay, that in even the latter geologic ages they were preceded in
+them by animals of the same general type. There are fourteen such areas,
+or provinces, enumerated by the later naturalists;" and Cuvier, quoted
+by Miller, says, "The great continents contain species peculiar to each;
+insomuch, that whenever large countries, of this description, have been
+discovered, which their situation had kept isolated from the rest of the
+world, the class of quadrupeds which they contained has been found
+extremely different from any that had existed elsewhere. Thus, when the
+Spaniards first penetrated into South America, they did not find a
+single species of quadruped the same as any of Europe, Asia, or Africa."
+
+The white bear is never found except in the arctic regions; the great
+grizzly bear is only found in the neighborhood of the Rocky Mountains.
+Nearly all the species of mammals found in Australia are confined to
+that country, as the wingless birds of New Zealand are confined to that,
+and the sloth, armadillo, and other animals, to South America.
+
+A journey to the polar regions would be necessary to obtain the white
+bear, the musk-ox, of which seven would be required, since it is a clean
+beast; seven reindeer, likewise; the white fox, the polar hare, the
+lemming, and seven of each species of cormorant, gannet, penguin,
+petrel, and gull, some of which are as large as eagles, as well as
+mergansers, geese, and ducks, certain species of which are only found in
+the frigid zone. Noah or his agents must have discovered Greenland and
+North America thousands of years before Columbus was born: they must
+have preceded Behring, Parry, Ross, Kane, and Hayes in exploring the
+Arctic regions. They searched the ice-floes and numerous islands of the
+Arctic seas, snow-shoed, over the frozen _tundras_ of Siberia, to be
+certain that no living thing escaped them; then, after catching and
+caging all the animals, conveyed them, with all manner of food necessary
+for their sustenance, together with ice to temper the heat of the
+climate to which they were for more than a year to be exposed, returned
+to the nearest port, and, after a toilsome journey from the sea-coast to
+Armenia, arrived at their destination. How many of these animals would
+survive the journey? and, of those that did, how many would survive the
+change of climate and habits?
+
+Another party must have visited temperate America; traversed New England
+in its length and breadth, forded wide streams, made their way through
+unbroken wildernesses, traversed the Great Lakes, roamed over the Rocky
+Mountains, and secured the black bear, cinnamon bear, wapiti or Canadian
+stag, the moose, American deer, antelope, mountain sheep, buffalo,
+opossum, rattlesnake, copperhead, and an innumerable multitude of other
+animals--insects birds, reptiles, and mammals, that are only to be found
+in the temperate regions of America.
+
+A voyage to South America must have been made to obtain tapirs, pumas,
+peccaries, sloths, ant-eaters, armadillos, fourteen each of the llama,
+alpaca, and vicuna, beside monkeys, birds, and insects innumerable. A
+vessel nearly as large as "The Great Eastern" must have been employed,
+or a number of smaller ones, to accommodate the collectors, the animals,
+and food for a voyage across the Atlantic. There must have been, at
+least, a thousand men, wandering through the woods of Brazil, along the
+valley of the Amazon, the Orinoco, and the La Plata; paddling up the
+streams, scaling the mountains, roaming over the pampas, climbing the
+tall trees, turning over every stone and log, and exploring every nook,
+to discover the snails, bugs, insects, worms, reptiles, and other
+animals indigenous to South America, from the Isthmus to
+Tierra-del-fuego.
+
+There must have been obtained four elephants, for there are two species,
+the Asiatic and the Indian; fourteen rhinoceroses, one of which is found
+only in South Africa, another in the island of Java, and a third in
+Sumatra; two hippopotami, and possibly four, for some authorities say
+there are two species. Fourteen giraffes, since they are clean beasts,
+must have been caught and driven from Central Africa (many more, indeed,
+must have been caught, that the required number might reach the ark and
+be preserved); twenty-eight camels, two hundred and eighty oxen (for
+there are twenty species, and they are clean); and no less than thirteen
+hundred and eighty-six deer and antelope, of which there are ninety-nine
+species recognized: these to be collected in various parts of Europe,
+Asia, Northern and Southern Africa, and America.
+
+New Zealand must have been visited to obtain its wingless birds;
+Mauritius for its dodo, then living; Australia for its marsupials and
+other peculiar animals; and every large island, and most of the small
+ones, to obtain those forms of life that are only to be found in each.
+From the island of Celebes, they must have taken the eighty species of
+birds that are confined to it, which would require them to catch, cage,
+feed, and convey eleven hundred and twenty specimens: a no small job of
+itself. Ten men that could accomplish that, and carry them safe to
+Armenia, would do all that men could do in ten years. From the
+Philippine Islands, the seventy-three species of hawks, parrots, and
+pigeons, peculiar to them; which would require, since fourteen of every
+kind of bird were to be taken into the ark, no less than one thousand
+and twenty-two specimens. From New Guinea, and the neighboring islands,
+two hundred and fifty-two of the magnificent birds of paradise, since
+there are eighteen species.
+
+A faint idea of the difficulties encountered and overcome by Noah's
+agents may be gathered from what Wallace, in his recent work on the
+Malay Archipelago, informs us respecting these birds of paradise. "Five
+voyages to different parts of the district they inhabit, each occupying
+in its preparation and execution the larger part of a year, produced me
+only five species out of the fourteen known to exist in the New-Guinea
+district." If it took Wallace, with all the assistance that he had from
+various officials, five years to obtain five species, represented by
+dead birds, how long did it take Noah's agents to obtain eighteen
+species represented by two hundred and fifty-two live birds? Wallace
+could only obtain two alive, and for these he had to pay five hundred
+dollars.
+
+If the antediluvian sinners were any thing like the modern ones, Noah
+must have been richer than the Rothschilds, or he never could have
+obtained their services; which he must have done, or it could never be
+truthfully said, "according to all that God commanded him, so did he."
+
+The collection of the land-snails alone would be no small tax.
+Seventy-four are peculiar to Great Britain: hence there must have been a
+hundred and forty-eight snails collected from that island. Six hundred
+species are found in Southern Europe alone, and twelve hundred must have
+been collected from there; eighty in Sicily, ten in Corsica, two hundred
+and sixty-four in the Madeira Islands, a hundred and twenty in the
+Canary Islands, twenty-six in St. Helena, sixty-three in Southern
+Africa, eighty-eight in Madagascar, a hundred and twelve in Ceylon, a
+hundred in New Zealand, and others on every large and some of the small
+islands of the globe. The world must have been circumnavigated many
+times before the vessel of Magellan was built, and every island visited
+and ransacked ages before the time of Captain Cook. But it seems
+surprising, since these voyages must have been performed by the sinful
+antediluvians, that they did not save themselves in their ships when the
+flood came; for vessels that could perform such voyages would certainly
+have survived the flood more readily than the clumsy ark.
+
+But was it really done? A thousand men in ten years, with all the
+appliances of modern art,--steamboats, railroads, canals, coaches, and
+express companies,--could not accomplish it in ten years; nor ten times
+the number of men keep all the animals alive in one spot for one year,
+if they were collected together.
+
+"But," says the Christian, "Noah never did collect them: no intelligent
+person in this day ever supposes that he did." What then? "The Bible
+expressly declares that 'they went in unto Noah into the ark.' By
+instinct, such as leads the swallow to take its distant flight at the
+approach of winter, they came from all parts of the globe to the ark of
+safety."
+
+It is true that one account does say that they came in unto Noah, for
+there are two very different stories of the deluge mixed up in those
+chapters of Genesis; but, although flying birds might perform such a
+feat as going twelve thousand miles to the ark, which would be necessary
+for some, how could other animals get there? It would be impossible even
+for some birds. How could the ostriches of Africa, the emus of
+Australia, and the rheas of South America, get there,--birds that never
+fly? There are three species of the rhea, or South-American ostrich; and
+forty-two of these would have a journey of eight thousand miles before
+them, by the shortest route: but how could they cross the Atlantic? If
+they went by land, they must have traversed the length of the American
+continent, from Patagonia to Alaska, crossed at Behring's Strait when it
+was frozen, and then travelled diagonally across nearly the whole
+continent of Asia to Armenia, after a journey that must have required
+many months for its completion. The sloths, that have been confined to
+South America ever since the pliocene period at least, must have taken
+the same route. How they crossed the mountain streams, and lived when
+passing over broad prairies, it would be difficult to say. A mile a day
+would be a rapid rate for these slow travellers, and it would therefore
+require about forty years for them to arrive at their destination. But,
+since the life of a sloth is not as long as this, they must have
+bequeathed their journey to their posterity, and they to their
+descendants, born on the way, who must have reached the ark before the
+door was closed. The land-snails must have met with still greater
+difficulties. Impelled by most wonderful instinct, they commenced their
+journey full a thousand years before the time; and their posterity of
+the five hundredth generation must have made their appearance, and been
+provided with a passage by the venerable Noah.
+
+Scott, who wrote a commentary on the Bible seventy or eighty years ago,
+must have seen some of these difficulties, though with nothing like the
+clearness with which science enables us to see them now. He says, "There
+must have been a very extraordinary miracle wrought, perhaps by the
+ministration of angels, in bringing two of every species to Noah, and
+rendering them submissive to him and peaceable with each other; yet it
+seems not to have made any impression on the hardened spectators."
+
+Think of a troop of angels fly-catching, snail-seeking, and bug-hunting
+through all lands, lugging through the air, horses, giraffes, elephants,
+and rhinoceroses, and dropping them at the door of the ark. One has
+crossed the Atlantic with rattlesnakes, copperheads, and boas twined
+around him, almost crippling his wings with their snaky folds; and
+another with a brace of skunks, one under each wing, that the renewed
+world may not lack the fragrance of the old. What a subject for the
+pencil of a Raphael or Dore! Had the "hardened spectators" beheld such a
+scene as this, Noah and his cargo would have been cast out of the ark,
+and the sinners themselves, converted by this stupendous miracle, would
+have taken passage therein.
+
+Not only must there have been a succession of most stupendous miracles
+to get the animals to the ark, but also to return them to their proper
+places of abode. But few of them could have lived in the neighborhood of
+Ararat, had they been left there. How could the polar bear return to his
+home among the ice-bergs, the sloths to the congenial forests of the New
+World, and all the mammals, reptiles, insects, and snails to their
+respective habitats, the homes of their ancestors for ages innumerable?
+To return them was just as necessary as to obtain them, and, though less
+difficult, was equally impossible.
+
+_How could eight persons, all that were saved in the ark, attend to all
+these animals!_ Nearly all would require food and water once a day, and
+many twice. In a menagerie, one man takes care of four cages,--feeds,
+cleans, and waters the animals. In the ark, each person, women included,
+must have attended each day to ten thousand nine hundred and sixty-four
+birds, seven hundred and sixty-six beasts, one hundred and fourteen
+reptiles, one thousand one hundred and fifty land-snails, and one
+hundred and eighty-seven thousand five hundred insects.
+
+Few persons have an idea of the difficulty of keeping even the common
+birds of a temperate climate alive in confinement for any length of
+time. Food that is quite suitable in a wild state may be fatal to them
+when they are kept in the house. Linnets feed on winter rape-seed in the
+wild state, but soon die if fed upon it in-doors. "They are to be fed,"
+says Bechstein, "on summer rape-seed, moistened in water; and their food
+must be varied by the addition of millet, radish, cabbage, lettuce and
+plantain-seeds, and sometimes a few bruised melon-seeds or barberries."
+Nightingales, he says, should be fed on meal, worms, and fresh ants'
+eggs: but, if it is not possible to get these, a mixture of hard egg,
+ox-heart minced, and white bread may be given; but this often kills the
+birds. No such food would do for Noah's nightingales, then, or where
+would have been the nightingale's song? They must have been fed on meal,
+worms, and _fresh_ ant's eggs. How they were obtained, we have, of
+course, no knowledge. Bechstein says that larks may be fed with "a paste
+made of grated carrot, white bread soaked in water, and barley or wheat
+meal, all worked together in a mortar. In addition to this paste, larks
+should be supplied with poppy-seed, bruised hemp, crumb of bread, and
+plenty of greens, such as lettuce, endive, cabbage, with a little lean
+meat or ant-eggs occasionally." He says the cage should be furnished
+with a piece of fresh turf, often renewed, and great attention should be
+paid to cleanliness. The care of the birds in the ark probably fell to
+the women. As they had not read Bechstein, or any other author on
+bird-keeping,--and thousands of the birds must have been total strangers
+to them,--how did they know what diet to supply them with, and where
+could they get it, supposing they had time to supply them at all?
+
+If the difficulty was great to keep the birds of a temperate climate,
+how much greater must it have been to keep tropical birds in a climate
+altogether unsuited to them? The two birds of paradise bought by Wallace
+were fed, he says, on rice, bananas, and cockroaches: of the last, he
+obtained several cans from a bake-house at Malta, and thus got his
+paradise birds, by good fortune, to England. But how many cans of
+cockroaches would be necessary for two hundred and fifty-two of such
+birds,--the number in the ark? and where were the bake-houses from which
+the supply might be obtained?
+
+To keep this vast menagerie clean would have required a large corps of
+efficient workers, especially when we remember that there was but one
+door in each story, as some suppose; or one door to the whole ark, as
+the story seems to teach, and this door was closed; and but one window,
+and that apparently in the roof. The Augean stable, the cleansing of
+which was one of the labors of Hercules, can but faintly indicate what
+must have been the condition of the ark in less than a month, supposing
+the animals to subsist as long.
+
+_Whence came the water that covered the earth to the tops of the highest
+mountains?_ "All the high hills that were under the whole heaven were
+covered. Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains
+were covered," says the record. And to do this, it rained for forty days
+and forty nights. A fall of an inch of water in a day is considered a
+very heavy rain in Great Britain. The heaviest single rain recorded fell
+on the Khasia Hills in India, and amounted to thirty inches in
+twenty-four hours. If this deluging rain could have continued for forty
+days and nights, and had it fallen over the entire surface of the globe,
+the amount would only have been one hundred feet; which, instead of
+covering the mountains, would not have covered the hills. But, of
+course, such a rain is only possible for a very limited time, and on a
+small portion of the earth's surface.
+
+Sir John Leslie, in "The Encyclopedia Britannica," says, "Supposing the
+vast canopy of air, by some sudden change of internal constitution, at
+once to discharge its whole watery store, this precipitate would form a
+sheet of scarcely five inches thick over the surface of the globe." But
+if the water that covered the earth above the tops of the highest
+mountains came by rain, it must have rained seven hundred feet a day for
+forty days! or there must have fallen each day, according to Sir John
+Leslie's estimate, more than fourteen hundred times as much water on the
+earth as the atmosphere contained!
+
+But the writer says, "The fountains of the great deep were broken up."
+To the Jews, who supposed, with David, that God had founded the earth
+upon the seas, and established it upon the floods, this meant something;
+but, in the light of geology, we see that it only demonstrates the
+ignorance of the man who wrote and the people that believed the story.
+
+Adam Clarke, commenting on this passage, says, "It appears that an
+immense quantity of water occupied the centre of the antediluvian earth;
+and, as this burst forth by the order of God, the circumambient strata
+must sink in order to fill up the vacuum occasioned by the elevated
+waters." If true, it would not have assisted in drowning the world one
+spoonful. For if the strata sank anywhere to fill the hollow previously
+occupied by the water, it would only make the mountains so much higher
+in comparison: hence it would require just that much extra water to
+cover them. In the light of geology, however, the notion is sufficiently
+absurd. A mile and a half deep, the earth's interior is hot enough to
+convert water into steam; there is, therefore, no chance for water to
+exist in its centre, or anywhere near it.
+
+_It is as great a difficulty to discover where the water went when the
+flood was over._ We are told that the fountains of the deep and the
+windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain was restrained. But this
+could do nothing towards diminishing the water. All that it could
+possibly accomplish would be to prevent the rise of the water. But we
+are also told that "God made a wind to pass over the earth." All that
+the wind could do, however, would be to convey to the atmosphere the
+moisture it took up in vapor; and this could not have lowered the water
+a yard. The highest mountain, Kunchinginga, is more than twenty-eight
+thousand feet high; the flood prevailed one hundred and fifty days, and
+abated two hundred and twenty-five; and if this abatement was done by
+the wind, it must have blown an ocean of water from the entire surface
+of the earth, one hundred and twenty-five deep, every day for eight
+months! All the hurricanes that ever blew, blowing at once, would be the
+gentlest zephyr of a summer's eve, compared with such a wind as that;
+and by what possibility could such a craft as the ark survive the storm?
+
+A question, proper to be asked is, _How were the animals supplied with
+light?_ and how did the attendants see to wait upon them in the first
+and second stories of the ark? There was but one window, and that only
+twenty-two inches in size, and it appears to have been in the third
+story. It was a day when kerosene was unknown, and tallow dips were
+uninvented. How did these animals live in the darkness? and, above all,
+how did Noah and his family supply their wants? It could have been no
+easy or pleasant thing to wait upon hungry lions, tigers, crocodiles,
+and rattlesnakes in the dark, to say nothing of the danger.
+
+_How did they breathe?_ There was but one twenty-two inch window; the
+ark was "pitched within and without with pitch;" "The Lord shut him in."
+Talk of the Black Hole of Calcutta: it must have been pure as the breath
+of morning compared with the condition of the ark in one day.
+
+_Where did they obtain water for drink?_ Supposing all the additional
+water needed to drown the world was fresh, when mingled with the water
+of the sea, as much as one-tenth of it would be salt water, and this
+would render it utterly unfit for drink. Provision must therefore have
+been made for water; and a space certainly half as large as the ark must
+have been taken up for the water necessary for this immense multitude.
+
+_The fish, mollusks, crustaceans (such as our crabs and lobsters), and
+all corals, must have died if such a flood had taken place_,--the
+fresh-water fish from the salt water at once added to their proper
+element, and the salt-water fish and other marine forms from so large an
+addition of fresh water. For months, there could have been no shore:
+what is now the margin of the sea was buried miles deep; and all the
+fucoidal vegetation, upon which myriads of animals subsist, must have
+perished, and the animals with it, if the change in the constitution of
+the water had not killed them. Every time a man swallows an oyster, he
+has evidence that the Noachian deluge did not take place.
+
+_The plants must have perished also._ How many of our trees, to say
+nothing of the grasses and feeble plants, could endure a soaking of
+nearly twelve months' duration? Some of the very hardiest seeds might
+survive, but the number could not be large. The present condition of
+vegetation upon the globe is another evidence, then, that this deluge
+did not take place.
+
+_When the ark landed on Mount Ararat, and the animals went forth, how
+did they subsist?_ As they went down the mountains, the carnivorous
+animals would have devoured a large portion of the herbivorous animals
+saved in the ark. Beside the lions, tigers, leopards, ounces, and other
+carnivorous mammals, amounting to eight hundred and ninety-two, there
+were in the ark six hundred and sixty-six eagles, for there are
+forty-eight species; one hundred and forty-four buzzards, fourteen
+hundred and forty-two falcons, one hundred and forty hawks, two hundred
+and thirty-eight vultures, and eight hundred and ninety six owls. What
+chance would a few sheep, rabbits and squirrels, rats and mice, doves
+and chickens, have, among this ravenous multitude? How could the ants
+escape, with ant-eaters, aard-varks and pangolins on the watch for them
+as soon as they made their appearance? There were as many dogs as hares,
+as many cats as mice. How long a lease of life could the sheep, hares,
+and mice, calculate upon? Before the herbivorous animals had multiplied,
+so as to furnish the carnivorous animals with food, they must all have
+been destroyed, after all the pains taken for their preservation. Noah
+should have given the herbivora, at least a year's start, especially
+since the vegetation of the globe was so deficient.
+
+But we are told that the species of animals may have been much fewer in
+the days of Noah; and, therefore, much less room would be necessary. A
+single pair of cats, say some, may have produced all the animals of the
+cat kind; a pair of dogs, all the animals that belong to the dog family.
+Such an explanation might have been given when zoology was little known,
+and geology had no existence; but there is no place for it now. Animals
+change, it is true, and all species have probably been produced from a
+few originals; but the process by which this is accomplished is so slow
+in its operation, that we have no knowledge of the formation of a new
+species. We know that lions, tigers, and cats of various species,
+existed long before the time of the deluge, and dogs, wolves and foxes;
+and we find mummied cats, dogs, and other animals in Egypt, as old or
+older than the deluge, so little changed from those of the present time
+in the same locality, that we cannot recognize any difference between
+them.
+
+_"You seem to forget that all things are possible with God: he could
+have packed these animals into an ark of one-half the size, brought them
+altogether in the twinkling of an eye, and returned them as rapidly."_
+
+And you seem to forget that the account in Genesis gives us no hint of
+any such miracle. Noah was to take the animals to him, and to take unto
+him of all food that is eaten; and, as Hugh Miller remarks, "the
+expedient of having recourse to supposititious miracle in order to get
+over a difficulty insurmountable on every natural principle, is not of
+the nature of an argument, but simply an evidence of the want of it.
+Argument is at an end when supposititious miracle is introduced." But,
+if a miracle was worked, it was not one, but ten thousand of the most
+stupendous miracles, and entirely unnecessary ones. This, the Rev. Dr.
+Pye Smith saw, when he said, "We cannot represent to ourselves the idea
+of all land animals being brought into one small spot, from the polar
+regions, the torrid zone, and all the 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,--the
+resurrection of the Lord Jesus,--sinks down before it."
+
+It is a favorite method with the advocates of special revelations to
+show their agreement with the operations of natural law, till a
+difficulty is met with that cannot be answered, when they flee at once
+to miracle to save them. But, in this case, miracle itself cannot save
+them.
+
+Geology furnishes us with evidence that no such deluge has taken place.
+According to Hugh Miller, "In various parts of the world, such as
+Auvergne in Central France, and along the flanks of Etna, there are
+cones of long-extinct or long-slumbering volcanoes, which, though of at
+least triple the antiquity of the Noachian deluge, and though composed
+of the ordinary incoherent materials, exhibit no marks of denudation.
+According to the calculations of Sir Charles Lyell, no devastating flood
+could have passed over the forest-zone of Etna during the last twelve
+thousand years."
+
+Archaeology enters her protest equally against it. We have abundance of
+Egyptian mummies, statues, inscriptions, paintings, and other
+representations of Egyptian life belonging to a much earlier period than
+the deluge. With only such modifications as time slowly introduced, we
+find the people, their language, and their habits, continuing after that
+time, as they had done for centuries before. Lepsius, writing from the
+pyramids of Memphis, in 1843, says, "We are still busy with structures,
+sculptures, and inscriptions, which are to be classed, by means of the
+now more accurately determined groups of kings, in an epoch of highly
+flourishing civilization, as far back as the fourth millennium before
+Christ." That is one thousand six hundred and fifty-six years before the
+time of the flood. Lyell says that "Chevalier Bunsen, in his elaborate
+and philosophical work on ancient Egypt, has satisfied not a few of the
+learned, by an appeal to monumental inscriptions still extant, that the
+successive dynasties of kings may be traced back without a break, to
+Menes, and that the date of his reign would correspond with the year
+3,640 B.C.;" that is nearly thirteen hundred years before the time of
+the deluge. Strange that the whole world should have been drowned and
+the Egyptians never knew it!
+
+From the "Types of Mankind," we learn that the fact is "asserted by
+Lepsius, and familiar to all Egyptologists, that negro and other races
+already existed in Northern Africa, on the Upper Nile, 2,300 years B.C."
+
+But this is only forty-eight years after the deluge. What kind of a
+family had Noah? Was amalgamation practised by any of Noah's sons? If
+all the human occupants of the ark were Caucasians, how did they produce
+negro races in forty-eight years? The facts again compel us to announce
+the fabulous character of this Genesical story of the deluge.
+
+_"No intelligent person now believes that it was a total deluge:
+Buckland, Pye Smith, Miller, Hitchcock, and all Christian geologists,
+agree that it was a partial deluge, and the account can be so
+explained."_
+
+How strange that God should dictate an account of the deluge that led
+everybody to a false conclusion with regard to it, till science taught
+them a better. But let us read what the account says, and see whether it
+can be explained to signify a partial deluge. To save the Bible from its
+inevitable fate, such men as Buckland, Smith, Miller, Hitchcock, and
+other Bible apologists, it is evident from their writings, were ready to
+resort to any scheme, however wild.
+
+I read (Gen. vi. 7), "I will destroy both man and beast, and the
+creeping thing." How could a partial deluge accomplish this? (v. 13);
+"The end of all flesh is come before me. I will destroy them with the
+earth." How could all flesh be destroyed with the earth by any other
+than a total deluge? (v. 17); "I do bring a flood of waters upon the
+earth, to destroy all flesh wherein is the breath of life, from under
+heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die." Not only is man
+to be destroyed, but all flesh wherein is the breath of life, from under
+heaven, and every thing in the earth is to die. Can this be tortured to
+mean a partial deluge? (vii. 19); "And the waters prevailed exceedingly
+upon the earth; and all the high hills that were under the whole heaven
+were covered; and all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of
+fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of creeping thing that creepeth
+upon the earth, and every man. All in whose nostrils was the breath of
+life, of all that was in the dry land, died. And every living substance
+was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man and
+cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they
+were destroyed from the earth, and Noah only remained alive, and they
+that were with him in the ark." Had the man who wrote this story been a
+lawyer, and had he known how these would-be-Bible-believers, and at the
+same time geologists, would seek to pervert his meaning, he could not
+have more carefully worded his account. It is not possible for any man
+to express the idea of a total flood more definitely than this man has
+done. He does not merely say the hills were covered, but "_all_" the
+hills were covered; and lest you should think that he certainly did not
+mean the most elevated, he is careful to say "all the _high_" hills were
+covered; and lest some one should say he only meant the hills in that
+part of the country, he says expressly "all the high hills that were
+_under the whole heaven were covered_." He is even so cautious as to
+introduce the phrase "_whole_ heaven," lest some one in its absence
+might still think that the deluge was a partial one. To make its
+universality still more evident, he says, "All flesh died that moved
+upon the earth." This would have been sufficiently definite for most
+persons, but not so for him; he particularizes so that none may
+escape,--"both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of creeping
+thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man." To leave no
+possibility of mistake, he adds, "all in whose nostrils was the breath
+of life, of all that was in the dry land, died." Can any thing more be
+needed? The writer seems to see that some theological professor may even
+yet try to make this mean a partial deluge; and he therefore says,
+"Every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the
+ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of
+the heaven; they were destroyed from the earth." Is it possible to add
+to the strength of this? He thinks it is; and he therefore says, "Noah
+only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark." Could any
+truthful man write this and then mean that less than a hundredth part of
+the earth's surface was covered. If not a total flood, why save the
+animals, above all the birds? All that Noah and his family need to have
+done would have been to move out of the region till the storm was over.
+If a partial flood, how could the ark have rested on the mountains of
+Ararat? Ararat itself is seventeen thousand feet high, and it rises from
+a plateau that is seven thousand feet above the sea-level. A flood that
+enabled the ark to float on to that mountain could not have been far
+from universal; and, when such a flood is accounted for on scientific
+principles, it will be just as easy to account for a total flood.
+
+_"The flood was only intended to destroy man, and therefore only covered
+those parts of the earth that were occupied by him."_
+
+The Bible states, however, that it was intended to destroy every thing
+wherein was the breath of life; and your account and the Bible account
+do not at all agree. But, if man was intended to be destroyed, the flood
+must have been wide-spread. We know that Africa was occupied before that
+time, and had been for thousands of years, by various races. We learn,
+from the recent discoveries in the Swiss Lakes, that man was in
+Switzerland before that time; in France, as Boucher's and Rigollet's
+discoveries prove; in Great Britain, as the caves in Devonshire show; in
+North America, as the fossil human skull beneath Table Mountain
+demonstrates. Hence, for the flood to destroy man alone at so recent a
+period, it must have been as wide spread as the earth.
+
+Even according to the Bible account, the garden of Eden, where man was
+first placed, was somewhere near the Euphrates; and in sixteen hundred
+years the race must have rambled over a large part of the earth's
+surface. The highest mountains in the world, the Himalayas, are within
+two thousand miles of the Euphrates. That splendid country, India, would
+have been occupied long before the time of the deluge; and, on the
+flanks of the Himalayas, man could have laughed at any flood that
+natural causes could possibly produce.
+
+_"How do you account, then, for these traditions of a deluge that we
+find all over the globe?"_
+
+Nothing more easy. In all times floods have occurred; some by heavy and
+long-continued rains, others by the bursting of lake-barriers or the
+irruption of the sea; and wherever traditions of these have been met
+with, men with the Bible story in their minds have at once attributed
+their origin to the Noachian deluge.
+
+_"But Jesus and the apostles indorse the account of the deluge."_
+
+Granted; but does that transform a fable into a fact? They believed the
+story just as our modern theologians believe it; because they were
+taught it when they were children, and had not learned better. Jesus
+says (Matt. xxv. 37-39), "But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the
+coming of the Son of man be. For, as in the days that were before the
+flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage,
+until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and knew not until the
+flood came and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son
+of man be." If the man had regarded the story as false, he never would
+have referred to it in such a manner. And, in this manifestation of
+credulity on the part of Jesus, we can see the very false estimate
+placed upon him by so large a portion of the people of this country. Let
+the truth be spoken, though Jesus and all other idols be overthrown. So
+he would say, if alive, or he was not as good and intelligent a man as I
+think he was.
+
+By this story the Bible stands or falls as a divine book. It falls, as
+we see, and takes its place with all other human fallible productions.
+For knowledge, we go to Nature, our universal mother, who gives her
+Bible to every soul, and preaches her everlasting gospel to all people.
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note:
+
+    Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note. Variant
+    spellings have been retained. Hyphenation has been standardised.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Deluge in the Light of Modern
+Science, by William Denton
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DELUGE IN LIGHT OF MODERN SCIENCE ***
+
+***** This file should be named 25975.txt or 25975.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/2/5/9/7/25975/
+
+Produced by Bryan Ness, Stephen Blundell and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from scans of public domain works at the
+University of Michigan's Making of America collection.)
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
diff --git a/25975.zip b/25975.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8f13b56
--- /dev/null
+++ b/25975.zip
diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6312041
--- /dev/null
+++ b/LICENSE.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4ba4730
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #25975 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/25975)