Others, and even yet they are many, attribute the transport of both gravel and boulders to the Noachian deluge, which is their great geological catastrophe. The application, however, of that great historical event to such physical agencies, is beset with great difficulties. The words of scripture do not support, but rather oppose, the notion of a huge wave rising in the north to a great height, then rushing southwards over the dry land, and rooting up or sweeping before it, by hydrostatic pressure, fragments of the earth’s crust. Nor are facts more in accordance with that notion--the boulders of Scandinavia were moved from north to south--the boulders of the Alps from south to north, passing over the Jura mountains into Franchcomté--the stratification of many of the heaps of sand and gravel--the position of the boulders generally on the surface, whether of rocks, of sand, or of gravel--and the valleys, lakes, and seas now lying in the line of movement, which, if existing before the catastrophe, must have been filled up before the boulders could have travelled farther, if formed after, must have required the action of a second catastrophe of equal violence for their formation. And if, which is more in accordance with scripture, we consider the waters rising from the surrounding seas over the dry land, and then suppose them urged on with immense velocity, the effect would be a heaving up and moving forward of fragments from the lower land, by which the surface of the higher would be partly covered and protected; and at the return of the waters to their ancient beds, these fragments would be swept off, and carried back the same way they came. Neither, then, the words of scripture, nor the facts themselves, require us to seek in the Noachian deluge for an explanation of these phenomena. Another theory, still adhered to by many modern geologists, is, the action of submarine currents, at a time when the present dry land had only in part emerged from the sea. This theory has the advantage of dealing with bodies of diminished gravity, in consequence of their immersion in a fluid, and consequently of having to provide for the movement of weights less by one-half or one-third than they would have been in air. In conjunction with the theory of raised beaches, it explains many of the phenomena of accumulations of sand and gravel, but not all. And as regards the transport of boulders, it fails; the great size and angular form of some--their occurrence at various levels, resting on various strata--sometimes connected with, and sometimes unconnected with sand or gravel--their position frequently on the top of heaps and ridges of gravel, being facts in seeming opposition to such an explanation, even were it conceded that all the depressions now existing on the line of travel, as lakes and seas and valleys, were scooped out subsequently to their transport.