WAS THERE A DELUGE?

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 75, 29 March 1930, Page 11

WAS THERE A DELUGE?

Whether thoro was scientific confirmation of the Biblical deluge was discussed by Lieut.-Coloncl L. M. Davies in an essay recently read before the members of the Victorian Institute, The Times." It had to be admitted, he said, that most geologists to-day would answer the question emphatically in the negative. But as a geologist he was satisfied that belief in the Mood w<is at least tenable on the basis of physical facts. One of the many reasons for this opinion was the presence all over Northern Asia of Hie remains of-tlio mammoth. They were found buried deep in the permanently frozen soil, often in vast herds, complete with skin and hair, showing that they were buried and frozen before their bodies had time to decompose. There were associated with them in many cases other animals

and great masses of trees, a great deal of the latter having grown on the spot, though nothing but hardy mosses or stunted bushes could live in those localities now. It scorned clear that the crowded carcasses on the islands of tho Arctic Sea, which represented the local hilltops and plateaux whon the animals were alive, must be those of animals which fled there for safety. The soil must have been soft when tho animals were buried, and the freezing must have followed immediately after tho burial. All the facts seemed to point to the coining of widespread torrents or! water, heavily charged with sediment from the south, and this afforded grounds for holding that they could only be explained by postulating a flood of continental dimensions.