The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-05-14
SCIENCE CONFIRMS THE DELUeE
The Strange New Story OF the Ancient
Flood-Not the First. Nor Last.

bic biblical tradition of the food has also
a kernel of scientific evidence to rest
upon. and presents nothing discordant
from the point OF view of the modern
meteorologist. In the first place we have
the broad diffusion of the myth, not only
in Europe and Asia, but also in America,
as well among the Greenlanders of the
north as among the Atzecs and Peruvians.
Add to this that it is current among the
| negroes of the SOudan, the HOttentOts and
the people of Borneo, and it is no longer
possible to regard it as wholly without
! foundation in fact.
/ Alexander V. Humboldt was impressed
with this view. He says in his American
| diary: Il cannot leave this first spur of
/ the mountain chain of Encaramada with
out thinking of a matter which was fre-
| quently brought to notice during our stay
| in the Orinoco missions. The natives of
this country still preserve a tradition of
| the Great Water, when their fathers had
! TO take to their canoes to escape the uni
versal overflow, when the waves of the
| sea washed the rocks of the Encaramada
This tradition is not confined to one people
alone, but is widely distributed and at
tested by hieroglyphs high up on the
rocks. If one asks native: How was it
possible to inscribe the hieroglyphics so
high on the rock he answers as if he
were narrating fact which none but a
white man could be ignorant of, that at
the time of the great food their fathers
tloated so high in canoes"
And when Humboldt closed with the
words: These ancient traditions of the
race which we find distributed like frag-
mentS Of a wreck over the whole surface
of the earth, are of high significance
we supplement his remark by saying that
they are of the highest significance, espe-
cially when, as in the present case, they
so wonderfully support the conclusions of
recent scientists.
As regards the scientific aspect of the
problem, it has been fully demonstrated
that in the gray dawn of antiquity gla-
Ciers were much more extensive than
now We have the evidences first in
grinding traces of the glacier in its flow,
and, secondly, in the glacial drifts, the
so-called ''mOraines." Such evidences of
an ice age are often found in localities
whose present climatic conditions pre-
cludC all possibility of glacier formation.
One of the most beautiful and magnii-
cent of all glacier ruts was seen by the
writer in South America. Close TO CuzcO,
the old chief city of Peru, towers a hill
called ROdaderO, whose summit is
crowned with a three-fold zigzag wall of
dimensiQns-the remains of an ancient
fortress. Opposite this wall, and sepa-
rated from it by a small valley, the ira
chytic rock of the mountain summit,
stripped of its humus, is laid bare over
considerable arch, and while its general
surface has been ground down smooth as
glass, numerous parallel burrows score its
surface from the top downward. These
are so pronounced that the Cuzco Indians,
and following them the Spaniards, ex-
plain that in the good old days of the
meas, the chiefs and their families
and their followers were in
the habit of going to the summit and
i
incline The simple people have very lit
tie idea of how much friction would be
necessary to the formation of the ruts,
but geologist of moderate proficiency
would recognize here at the first glance
that he saw before him the grandest
specimen of glacial action in the world
and although the present writer was the
first TO draw attention the fact, his con-
cluslons have been amply confirmed by
later competent authorities. He found,
especially under the smooth surface of
the rock, and confirming with all it's fur
rows, thin stratum of asbestos, which
could have originated only by the meta
phoric influence of ice or water. .-.
1t is evident, then, that CuzCo at an
elevation of 12,000 feet and situated in
latitude 13' south, where the limit of per-
petual snow is above 10000 feet, must
have been subject to widely different eli
matte conditions at the period at which
it was covered by massive glaciers And
as the glacial period corresponds with the
geological diluvial period, in which the
precipitation of rain and snow was excess
i've there remains no doubt that the
glacial formation was the product of this
continuous precipitation. We know from
observation of modern glaciers that a
cold summer, with exceptional rainfall, is
always followed by an extension of the
glacier into the valleys, while in warm,
dry years it recedes. This advance and
retrogression is now found to be a period
| ical We know, too, from inorganic, as
well as from organic nature that the dilu-
vial period was characterized by a very
marked depression of temperature.
1t is precisely this periodicity of glacial
phenomena which guides US in our investi-
CATION of the subject under consideration
Biblical chronology places the creation at
1000 B. G. Now. regarding our sacred
scriptures from the point of view that
they are oriental compositions, and ac-
cepting the Creation as the overthrow
OF the old and the Origination of new con
ditionS, inaugurated, not by sudden
catastrophe, but by gradually operating
climatic causes, such as material increase
and decrease of precipitation with all its
attendant consequences, we should see the
old world tradition of a deluge presenting
itself in quite new light. When we re
fleet on the consequences, nowadays of
exceptionally heavy rain extending over a
few hours, there will be no difficulty in
realizing that, if such rainfall were of
frequent occurrence, the lowlands would
soon be converted into swamps and man
kind gradually constrained to forsake the
old seats of culture for higher, even al
though less fertile regions.
Piercing the shadows of the prehistoric
past, we find evidences, not of u mans
new arrival on earth 5000 years ago, but
of powerful civilized states, with their
kings, priests, Astronomers and scribes.
with all the luxuries and appliances of
modern life; and are constrained to re-
fleet on the preparatory stages through
which man must then have already
passed, and TO ask why do the traditions
of all people break sharp of at this point2
light is thrown on these questions by
the reflection that all civilized people then
came down out of the mountain, bringing
their civilization along with them. The
Aryans poured down on all sides from the
Himalayas, the Vanchain and the eau
casus, and the Peruvians from the Andes.
leaving traces of their labors behind
them.
What, then, we ask, were the conditions
which first drove these people to the
mountains, and what prompted them to
leave their mountain homes again and
build cities in the valleys? The question
L.