THE D]~LUGE:
LIGHT OF MODERN SCIEN CE.
-  fiocotiro.
BY
WILL,IAM  DENTON.
WELLESLEY, MASS.:
DENTON PUBLISHING COMPANY.
1882.
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THE DELUGE IN THE LIGHT
OF MODERN SCIENCE.
it the Bible is God's book, we ought to know it
[f the Creator of the universe has spoken to man,
how important thaL 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.
WVe 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 an
a
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,I} 
THE DELUGE IN THE LIGHT
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 fife.
Fear not, my brother: it can but burn the straw and
stubble; if gold, it will shine as bright after the tiery
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 thou.
sand years alter 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 fobwls 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; bfor the earth is fillei with violence through
them, and behold [ will destroy them with the
earth."
4 
OF MODERN SCIENCE.
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?
lie 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 rem.tiined 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 himn 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 fur
nished 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 lifferences of opinion about the length
of the cubit: most probably it was about eighteen
5 
THE DELUGE IN THE LIGHT
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 nleed 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 sixtynine 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
Hfughl 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 eightyseven thousand seven hundred and twenty-four birds,
- fromn the humnmilng-bird, the little flying jewel, to the
osticli that fals 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
6 
OF MODERN SCIENCE.
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 zoo
logical authorities enumerate two thousand and sixtyseven species of mammals, or, as they are commonly
called, beasts.  Of cetacea, or whale-like mammrals,
sixty-five; ruminatia, 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 iorty-six; cheiroptera,
or bats, three hundred  and twenty-eight;  quadrumana, or monkeys, two hundred and twenty-one; and
marsupialia, or pouched mammals, like the opossumn
and kangaroo, one hundred and thirty-seven.  If we
leave out the ceta,cea, that live in the water, and the
cutd-chlewers, 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 vlwhat
are clean beasts?  The scriptural answer is, animuals
lthat divide the hoof and chew the cud; and of these at
least Oiie ihundred 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 uponi another like cord-wood; they could
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THE DELUGE IN THE LIGHT
not be promtniscuously crowded together. The sheep
would need careful protection fromn 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 neecilUl
exercise, and for the attendants to supply them withl
food and water; and a vessel of the size of the ark
would be taxed to provide for these beasts alone;
anid 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
seiiously affect them; but crocodiles, lizards, igluanas,
tiree-frogs, horned  frogs,  thunder-snakes,  chicken.
snakes-, brittlesnakes, rattlesnakes, copperheads, asps,
cobra de capellos, 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
aCpearance, and clamor for admission. The number
of articulates that must have been provided for is
estimated at seven hundred and fifty thousand suez
ties,- from the butterflies of Brazil, fourteen inches
froni 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,
8 
OF MODERN SCIENCE.
wasps, bees, moths, butterflies, spiders, scorpions,
grasshoppers, locusts, myriapods, canker-worms, wrig.
gling, 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 Net received one-half of its
cargo.  The command given unto Noahl was,  "Ta-ke
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  comrman-ded Noah, so
did he."
Food for how long? The flood began in the " sixth
hundreth year of Noah's life, in the secoind 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 monthl, and the twenty-seventh day of the month.  They wvere 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 b,.en four elephants in
the ark; and, supposing them to live upon hay, they
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THE DELUGE IN THE LIGHT
would require three hundred  tonls.   There  are at
least seven species of the rhinoceros; and fourteen
of these, at seventy-five tolls each, would consume no
less than one tlhousand and fifty tons.  The two thousand four huiindred and seventy-eig-ht clean beasts,
oxen, elk, giraffes, camels, deer, antelope, sheep,
goats, withl the horses, zebras, asses, lhippopotami,
ilolen-ts, and marsupials - could not have required less
thlion four tlhousand five hulidred tons; making a total
of five tlhousand eight hundr'ed and fifty tons.  A
ton of hay occupies about eighteen cubic yards; aind
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,ubstances would counteibalance any advantage that mighit be gained by tile 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,
jackalls, dogs, and foxes, martens, weasels, eagles,
,),ldors, vultures, buzzards, falcons, hawkls, kites,
owls, as well as crocodiles and serpents!  Not one
but would eat its weight in a month, and some  Imuch
rmore.  A  full-grown lion eats fifteen poun(lds of flesh
in a day: there are two species of lions; and thie four
would eat twenty-two thousand pounds in a year.
There  would  be, at least, three t!iousand animals
10 
OF MODERN SCIENCE.
teeding upon flesh; and, if' we calculat( that they
atveraged 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 distril)uted.
And since dried, salted, or smoked  mneat woul:l not
anrswer, this flesh mntst have been taken into tie ark
alive. It would be equal to more tlhan thirty tlLt~Itsalnd sheep at seventy-five pounds each; a great addition to the original cargo, and  necessitating an
extra quantity of ltay for their food, till their turn
camne to be eaten.
Fish would be required for the otters, minks, pelicans, of whichl there  are eight species, and  must
tlherefore have been fifty-six individuals in the ark;
one  hundred  and  five gulls, for there are fifteen
species; one hundred and twelve cormorants, fortynine gannets, one hundred( and forty terns, two hundred  and  eighty-seven kinrgfisliers, beside  storks,
lieirons, spoonbills, penguins, albatrosses, and a host
of others; mollutsks for the oyster-catcher, turnstone,
and other birds.
The fish could not be preserved after death in any
way to answver 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 becorne unfitted(
for the respiration of the fish, and there must have
b)een soi1Ie provision, by air-pumnps or otherwise, for
clarging the water with the air essential to tl eir
existence.
MIaily animals live upon insects; and tllis must
have been thle most difficult part of the provision to
procure.  There are nineteen species (t' goatsuckers;
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THE DELUGE IN THE LIGHT
and there must have been in the ark two hundred
and  sixty-six individuals.   These  birds feed  upon
flies, miotlis, beetles, and other insects.  What an innumerable multitude must have been provided for the
goatsuckers alone! But there are a hundred and
thiirty-seveni species of fly-catchers; and Noah must
have had a fly-catcher family of nineteen hundred and
eighteen individuals to supply with appropriate food.
Tllbre are thlirty-seven species of bee-eaters;  and
there must have been five tliundied 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 pango.
lin 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 anteaters 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;
12 
OF MODERN SCIENCE.
others, resinous secretions, the pith, solid wood.
leaves, sap in the veins, as the aphide, flowers, pol.
len, and honey. Wood, bark, resiin, and honey might
have been supplied; but how could green leaves, sap;
flowers and pollen, be furnished to those insects abso.
lutely requiring them for existence? Thirty species
of insects feed on the nettle, but not one of them
could live on dried nettles.  Rosel 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 fruitpigeons of the Spice Islands that feed on nutmnegs,
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
fi-uit would be altogether unsuitable, there must have
been a large green-house for raising all mantner of
fruit necessary for the frugivorous multitude.
How were the various animals obtained? The corn.
mand 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.
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THE DELUGE IN THE LIGHT
Thus, Hiugh 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 Noaclhiin Deluge;
nay, that ill 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 cf the world, the class of quadrupeds which they
contained has been found extremnely different from
any that had existed elsewhere. Tlhus, 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 thie sloth, armadillo,
and other animals, to South America.
A journey to the polar regions would be ilecessary
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,
14 
OF MODERN SCIENCE.
gannet, penguin, petrel, and gull, some of which are
as large as eagle@, as well as merganisers, geese, and
ducks, certain species of which are only iound in the
fiigid zone.  Noah or his agents must have discov.
,red Greenlan-d and(  North America though. (is of
years before Columbus wxvas borni: they must ha-ve
preceded Bebring, Parry, Ross, Kane, -and HIayes in
exploring the Arctic regions. They searched the icefloes and numerous islands of the Arctic seas, snowshoed, over the frozen tundras of Siberi, to be cer.
tain that no living thing escaped them; then, after
cattchling and caging all the animals, conveyed them,
with all manner of food necessary for their sustenance,
together wvith 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 thleir destination.  How  many of these animals
would survive the journey? and, of those that did,
how many would survive the chlange of climate and
habits?
Another party must have visited temperate America; traversed New England in its lengtl-h and breadth,
forded wide streams, made their way through unbroken wildernesses, traversed the Great Lakes,
roamed over the Rocky Mountains, and secured the
t[)lack bear, cinnamon bear, wapiti or Canadian stag,
,lie 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
15 
THE DELUGE IN THE LIGHT
to obtain tapirs, pumas, peccaries, sloths, ant-eaters,
armadilloes, fourteen each of the llama, alpaca, aind vi
cuna, 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 ne-st
have bhen, 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 Terra-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 mighllt reach the ark and be preserved);
twenty-eight canmels, two hundred and eighty oxeni (for
there are twenty species, and they are clean); and no
tess than thirteen hundred and eighty-six deer and an.
telope, of which there are nlinety-nine species recognized: these to be collected in various parts of Europe,
Asia, Northern and Southern Africa, and America.
New Zealand must lhave been visited to obtain its
t6 
OF MODERN SCIENCE.
wingless birds;  Mauritiuts 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 thlose forms of life that are only to be
found in each.  From the island of Celebes, tlhey must
have taken the eighty species of birds that are confinled
to it, which would require them to catch, cage, feed,
and convey eleven  hundred  and twenty specimens:
a no small job of itself. Tell men that could accolnplishl that, anld carry them safe to Armenia, would do
all that men could do in teii years.   From  the Philippine Islands, the sevenlty-thlree species of hawks, par.
rots, and pigeons, peculiar to them; wliclh would require, since fourteen of every kind of bird were to be
taken into the ark, no less thani one tlhousand and
twenty-two specimens.   From  New Gutinea, and the
neighboring islands, two huidred and fifty-two of the
mrnagificelt birds of paradise, since there are eighteen
species.
A  faint idea of the difficulties encountered  and
overcome by Noah's  agents may be gathered  fromn
what Wallace, in his recent work on tlhe Malay Arciipelago, iuforms ils 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 tlhe New— fuinea district."  If it took Wallace, witl- all the as..
sistance that he had from various officials, five years to
obtain five species, represented by dead birds, how long
did it take Noahl's agents to obtain eighteen species
represented by two hundred and fifty-two live birds?
Wallace could only obtain two alive, and for these lie
had to Dav five hundred dollars.
17 
THE DELUGE IN THE LIGHT
If the antediluvian sinners were any thing like the
modern ones, Noah must have been richer than the
Rothlisclilds, or hlie never could have obtained thleir
services; which he must have done, or it could iievot
be truthfully said, "according to all that G,,d coini.
manded him, so did he.',
Trle collection of the land-snails alone would be 11no
siiall tax.   Seventy-four  are  peculiar to  Great
Britain: hence there must have been a hundred and
ftorty-eighlt snails collected  firom  that island.   Six
hundred species are found in Southern Europe alone,
and twelve hundred must have been collected fronm
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 Afiica, eighty-eight
in Madagascar, a hundred and twelve  ii 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 surprisinlg, since these
vovages 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
perfbrm such voyages would certainly have survived
the flood more readily than the clumsy ark.
BJut was it really done?  A  thousand men ill t(:tI
years, with all the appliances of modern art,-  steam.
boats, railroads, canals, coaches, and express com.
panies,- could not accomplish it in ten years; nor ten
times the number of men keep all the animals alive in
I 8 
OF MO[)ERN SCIENCE.
one spot for one year, if they wer  collected to.
getlier.
"But," says the Christian, "Noah never did col.
lect them: no intelligent person in this day ever sup.
poses that he did."  What then?  " The Bible expressly declares that'they went in unto Noahl 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 suLch 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 ostrichles 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
folity-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 Amer
ica ever since the pliocene period at least, must have
taken the same route.  How they crossed the nioun
19 
THE DELUGE IN THE LIGHT
tain streams, and lived when passing over broad
plairies, 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 be.
queathed 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-seek.
ilug, 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, coIt
perheads, and boas twined around him, almost crip.
pling his wings with their snaky folds; and another
20 
OF MODERN SCIENCE.
with a brace of skunks, one under each wing, that
the renewed world may not lack the fragrance of the
old. \VWhat a subject for the pencil of a Raphael or
Dore! Had the "hardened spectators" beheld such a.
scene as this, Noahl and his cargo would have been
cast out of the ark, and the sinners themrselves, 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 icebergs, the sloths to the congenial forests of the New
W\Vorld, and all the mammnals, 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 animalsl  Nearly all would
require food and water once a day, and many twice.
1ii1 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 sixtyfour birds, seven hundred and sixty-six beasts, one
hundred( and fourteen reptiles, one thousand one hun.
dred and fifty land-snails, and one hundred and
eighlty-seven thousand five hundred insects.
Few persons lhave an idea of the difficulty of keeping even the common birds of a temperate climate
21 
THE DELUGE IN THE LIGHT
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
Beck stein, " on summer rape-seed, moistened in water;
and their food must be varied  by the addition of
millet, radish, cabbage, lettuce and plantain-seeds,
gnd 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 nrightingales, then, or where would have been the nightin.
gale'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,
aid plenty of greens, such as lettuce, endive, cabbage, with a little lean meat or ant-eggs occasionally."
lie says the cage should be furnished with a piece of
fresh turf, often renewed, and great attention should
Je paid to cleanliness. The care of the birds in the 
arkl 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, sup
posing they had time to supply them at all?
22 
OF MODERN SCIENCE.
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 (ltogethler
unsuited to them? The two birds of paradise bought
by WAVallace were fed, he says, on rice, bananas, and
cockroaches:  of the last, he obtained several calis
from a bake-house at Malta, and thus got his para(lise
l)irds, by good fortune, to England.  But how mani)
cans of cockroaches would be necessary for two'hun.
dred 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 efficientt 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 higlh 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 sin
gle rain recorded fell on the Khasia Hills in India,
and amounted to thirty inctih in twenty-four hours
23 
THE DELUGE IN THE LIOHT
If this deluging rain could have continued for forty
days and nights, and had it fallen over the entire sur.
face 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,
o)f course, such a rain is only possible for a very
limited time, and on a small portion of the earth's
su rface.
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 moun
tains 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
wi'ote and the people that believed the story.
Adam Clarke, commenting on this passage, sa)s,
"It appears that an immense quantity of water occu.
pi(ed the centre of the antediluvian earth; and, as this
burst forth by the order of God, the circumrnambient
strata mlust sink in order to fill up the vacuum occa
sioned by the elevated waters." If true, it would not
24 
OF MODERN SCIENCE.
have assisted in drowning the world one spoonful.
For if the strata sank anywhere to fill the hollow previoisly 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 dtificulty to discover wthere the water
went wihen 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 twentv.
five deep, every day for eight months! All the hlurricanes 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
25 
TElE DELUTGE I  THE LIGHT
aiimals supplied with light? and how did the attendants
see to wait upon them in the first and second stories
Df the ark? There was but one window, and that
only twenty-two inches in size, and it appears to have
been in thie third story. It was a day when kerosene
was unknown, and tallow dips were ininvented. How
did these animals live in the darkness? and, above,ill,
how did Noahl 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?  The ie was but one twenty.
two inch window; the ark was "pitched within and
without wvitli 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 fi'esh, 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   Provis.
ion must therefore have been made for water; and a
space certainly half as large as the ark mtist have
been taken up lor the water necessary for this immense multitude.
Ite fish, mollusks, crustaceans (such as our crabs anid
lobsters), and all corals, must have died if such a flood(
had taken place, - the fresh-water fish from thie sa It
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
,)6 
OF MODERN SCIENCE.
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
cevidence 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
mnight 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.
WVhen the ark landed on Mount Ararat, and the
anitmals went forth, how did they subsist?  As they
went down the mountains, the carnivorous animals
would have devoured a large portion of the herb)ivorous animnals saved in the ark.  Beside the liols,
tigers, leopards, ounces, and other carnivorous mainmials, amounting to eight hundred and ninety-two, there
were in the ark six hundred and sixty-six eagles, for
there are forty-eighlt species;. one hundred and fortyfour buzzards, fourteen hundred and forty-two falcons,
one hundred and forty hawks, two hundred and thirtyeighlt 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  anteaters, aard-varks  and  pangolins on the
watch for them as soon as they made their appear.
ance?  There were as many dogs as hares, as many
27 
THE DELUGE IN THE LIGHT
cats as mice.  How long a lease of life could the
sheep, hares, and mice, calculate upon? Before the
lierbivorous animals had multiplied, so as to furnish
the carnivorous animals with food, they miust all have
been destroyed, after all the pains taken fc, their pres.
ervation. Noah should have given the he-bivora, 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 ex
planation 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 fiom a
few originals; but the process by which this is accomplisl-hed 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 recognizo
any difference between them.
" You seeme to forget that all things are pcssible with
God: he could have packed these animals into an ark
of one-half the size, brought t/hem altogetAher in the
twinkling of an eye, and returned them as rapidly."
And you seem to forget that the account in Gene
I)s 
OF MODERN SCIENCE.
sis 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
iniracle in order to get over a difficulty insurmounta.
l)le on every natural principle, is not of the nature of
aii 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 stupen.
dous miracles, and entirely unnecessary ones. This,
the Rev. Dr. Pye Smith saw, when he said, "W e cannot represent to ourselves the idea of all land animl-ls being brought into one sinall spot, from the polar
regions, thie 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 opera.
tions 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 Arvergne in
Central France, and along the flanks of Etna, there are
cones of long-extinct or long-slumbering volcanoes,
29 
THE DELUGE IN THE I,IGHT
which, though of at least triple the ant quity of the
Noacliian deluge, and though composed of the ordi
nary incoherent materials, exhibit no marks of de.
nudation. According to the calculations of Sir Charles
Lyoell, no devastating flood could have passed over
the forest-zone of Etna during the last twelve thou.
sand years."
Archelology enters her protest equally against it.
WVe hlave 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 inscrip.
tions, 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 thou.
sand six hundred and fifty-six years before the time
of the flood. Lyell says that " Chevalier Bunsen, in
his elaborate and philosophical wivork on ancient Egypt,
has satisfied not a few of the learned, by an appeal to
monumental inscriptions still extant, that the succes.
sive dynasties of kings may be traced bazk without
a break, to Menes, and that the date of his reigni
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
.,,   
30 
OF MODERN SCIENCE.
is " asserted by Lepsius, and familiar to all EgyI)tolo.
gists, that negro and other races alreaclv existed in
Northerrn Africa, on  the Upper  Nile,  2,300  years
B.C."
But this is only forty-eight years after the deluge.
Wh-at kind of a family had Noah?  Was  amnalgainatioitai practised by any of Noah's sons? If all the
human occupants of the ark were Caucasians, how
did they produce negro races in fo)rty-eight years?
The facts again compel us to announce the fabulous
chalitacter of this Genesical story of the deluge.
"No intelligent person now believes that it was a
tot(il delu]e': Buckland, Pye Smith, JIiller, Hitchcock,
ab d all CIristigan geologists, agree that it was a 1)artial
deltge, and tlhe account can be so explained."
flowv strange that God should dictate an account of
the cleluge that led everybody to a false conclusion
witl- 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 ftte,
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); " Tbe 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 de.
stroy all flesh wherein is the breath of life, from
31 
THE DELUGE IN THE LIGHT
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 wvere 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 ini 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 fi'om  the
earth, and Noah only remained alive, and they that
were with him in tile ark."  Had the man who wrote
this story been a lawyer, and had he known how
these would-be-Bible-believers, and at the saime 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 tlhanl this manl 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,
lie 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 evenii so cautious as to introduce the
ph ase "whole heaven," lest some one in its absence
32 
OF MODERN SCIENCE.
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 inot so for him; he particularizes so that none may
escape,-" both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast,
and of creeping thing that creepethl upon. the earth,
and every man." To leave 1no 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 tllat some
theological professor may even yet try to make  this
meaii a partial deluge; and lie 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 eartlh." Is it possible to
add to the strength of this?  He thinks it is; and lie
therefore says, " Noah only remained alive, and they
that were with him in the ark."  Could any truthfil
man write this and then mean that less than a lhundredth part of the earthl'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,ested 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  coul(  not have  been far from  uni.
3
38 
'THE DELUGE IN THE LIGHT
versal; and, when such a flood is accounted for on
scientific principles, it will be just as easy to account
for a total flood.
"Thle flood was only intended to destroy man, and
therefore ontly covered those parts of the earth that
were occupied by him."  The Bible states, however,
thflit 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 iiitended
to be destroyed, the flood must have been widespread. We know that Africa was occupied before
that time, and had been for thousands of years, by
various races. We learn, fromnt 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
thuiman 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
Eluphrates. That splendid country, India, would
h'.ve been occupied long before the time of the
deluge; and, on the flanks of the Himialayas, man
could nave laughed at any flood that natural causes
could possibly produce.
34 
OF MODERN SCIENCE.
'How do you account, thee for th!ese traditions of
a deluge that we find all over the globe?"
Nothing more easy. In all times floods have oc.
curred;  some by heavy and  long-continued rains.
others by the bursting of lake-barriers or the irrup'
lion of the sea; and wherever traditions of these
hlave! —en 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 tindorse 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 mail 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, hlie never
would have referred to it in such a minanner.  And, in
this manifestation of credulity on the. part of Jesus,
we can see the very false estimate placed upon llimn
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 d'i\o 
I s. Jo
35 
THE DELUGE IN THE LIGHT
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 lher everlasting
gosp)e] to all people.
36
e
a