2169. DELUGE, Cases of a Partial.—
History renders probably some instances of a
partial deluge in the country lying around the
Mediterranean Sea. It has been often supposed,
(2 Buffon Epoques, 96) and it is not unlikely
that that sea was once a lake. While such, let
us admit an extraordinary collection of the
waters of the atmosphere from the other parts
of the globe to have been discharged over that
and the countries whose waters run into it.
Or without supposing it a lake, admit such an
extraordinary collection of the waters of the
atmosphere, and an influx from the Atlantic
ocean, forced by long-continued Western winds.
That lake, or that sea, may thus have been so
raised as to overflow the low lands adjacent to
it, as those of Egypt and Armenia, which, according
to a tradition of the Egyptians and Hebrews,
were overflowed about 2300 years before
the Christian era; those of Attica, said to have
been overflowed in the time of Ogyges, about
500 years later; and those of Thessaly, in the
time of Deucalion, still 300 years posterior.—
Notes on Virginia. Washington ed. vii, 275.
Ford ed., iii, 117.
(1782)
