Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1857-04-17

been entombed long ages before, the feat would
have been surely far beyond the power of sucb
feeble natives of the soil as the mole the hedge.
hog, the shrew, the dormous, and the ieldyofe.
"Dr' rye smith, In dealing with this subject,
has emphatically said, that all land animals
having their geographical regions, to which
their constitutional natures are congenial-
many OF them being unable to live in any other
sltuatlon-we cannot represent to ourselves the
idea OF their 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
lslands-their preservation and provision. and
the final disposal Of thenl-without bringing mn
the Idea OF miracles more stupendous than any
tnat are recorded in Scripture The great de-
cislve miracle of Christianity he adds the
resurrection of the Lord Jesus, sinks down before
IL. And let US remember that the preservation
and redistribution of the land animals would
demand but portion of the amount Of miracle
absolutely necessary for the preservation, in
the circumstances, Of the entire fauna of the
globe. The fresh water fishes, moluscs, crusta-
cea, and zOOphytes, could be kept alive i'm a
universal deluge only by a miraculous means.
1t has been urged that, though the living indi-
vlduals were to perish, their spawn might be
preserved by natural means. 1t must be re-
membered, however, that, even of some fishes
whose proper habitat is the sea, such as the
salmon, it is essential for the maintenance of
the species that the spawn should be deposited
In fresh water, nay, in running fresh water :;
for In still water, however pure, the eggs, in q
few weeks, addle and die. The eggs of the
common trout also require to be deposited in
running fresh water: while other fresh water
fishes, such as the tench and carp, are reared
most successfully in still, reedy ponds The
fresh water fishes spawn, too, at very different
seasons, and the young remain for very different
periods in the egg. The perch and Crawling
spawn in the end of April or the beginning Of
May; the tench and roach about the middle
OF June; the common trout and powan in Oc-
tOber and November And while some fishes.
such as salmon, remain from ninety to a hun
dred days in the egg, others, such as the trout.
are extruded in five weeks
Without special miracle the spawn of all the
fresh water fishes could not be in existence as
such at one and the same time; without special
miracle Ii could not maintain its vitality i'm a
universal deluge and without special miracle,
even did it maintain its vitality, it could not
remain In the egg state throughout an entire
twelvemonth, but would be developed into fish
es of the several species to which it belonged at
very different periods. Further, in a universal
deluge, without special miracle vast numbers of
even the salt water animals could not fail to be
extirpated; in particular, almost all the mol
luscs of the littoral and laminarian zones Nor
would the vegetable kingdom fare greatly bet
tcI tilln one. vi the one hundred
thousand species of known plants, few indeed
would survive submersion for twelvemonth; /;
nor would the seeds of most Of the others fare
better than the plants themselves
There are certain hardy seeds that in favor
able circumstances maintain their vitality for
ages; and there are Others strongly encased in
water-tight sheels or skins, that have foated
across oceans to germinate in distant islands:
but such, as every florist knows is not the gen.
eral character of seeds; and not until after
many unsuccessful attempts, and many expe-
dients had been resorted to, have the more deli
cate kinds been brought uninjured, even on
shipboard, from distant countries to our own
1t is not too much to hold that, without special
miracle, at least three fourths Of the terrestrial
vegetation of the globe would have perished in
a universal deluge that covered over the dry
land for year. Assuredly the various vege-
table centres or regiOns-estimate ted by Schouw
at twenty -fve-bear witness to such catastro-
phe. Still distinct and unbroken as of old,
either no efacing food has passed over them, or
they were shielded from its effects at an ex-
pense of miracle many times more considerable
than that at which the Jews were brought out
of Egypt and preserved amid the nations, or
Christianity itself was ultimately established.