THE DUKE OF ARGYLL ON THE DELUGE.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3882, 28 December 1883, Page 4

THE DUKE OF ARGYLL ON THE DELUGE.

The TJuko of Argyll delivered a lecture lately fit Gliisg-ow cm " Geology unci Uic Deluge." Ho .said (lio common practicewis to suppose tluit there luid been v delude, ini'l then to aslc for proofs. He -would not thcoi-i.se , , but deal with geological facts. Till about twenty ycnr.s ago lie had been rather in doubt whether a delude had really occurred. The fact that old .sea levels could bo clearly traced in the British Isles afforded no proof of a deluge. By the deluge was meant a sudden and transitory Hubmergenco of laud, not .such v permanent submergence! as would lead to the sea forming , ;i bed. lie thought, however, that the huge boulders found on high Scotch mountains, the rocks and strata of which were entirely different, could only have been brought by imnien.se glaciers, .such as at present existed in the Arctic regions. In his opinion, the period which these boulders indicated was coincident and connected with the deluge period. Again, the heaps of gravel found upon Snowdon, ■which was not a volcanic mountain, indicated that transitory and tumultuous waters hurt covered those heights. The first action of water was the washing away of iitie earth and the depositing of gravel. Similar musses of gravel were found at Ttfaeclesfield, and indeed all over the country. They were found at such a height above sea-level that the water at that height would have covered iilniost I lio whole of Europe. The duke expressed an opinion that there was a great submergence of land to the depth of at least 2000 ft in Scotland, and that this catastrophewas coincident with what was kwown as the deluge. '