Page:Notes on the State of Virginia (1802).djvu/51

Rh they are, it would cover the globe but 35 feet deep; but as theſe waters, as they fell, would run into the ſeas, the ſuperficial meaſure of which is to that of the dry parts of the globe, as two to one, the ſeas would be raiſed only 52 feet and half above their preſent level, and of courſe would overflow the lands to that height only. In Virginia this would be a very ſmall proportion even of the champaign country, the banks of our tide waters being frequently, if not generally of a greater height. Deluges beyond this extent then, as for inſtance, to the North mountain or to Kentucky, ſeem out of the laws of nature. But within it they may have taken place to a greater or leſs degree, in proportion to the combination of natural cauſes which may be ſuppoſed to have produced them. Hiſtory renders probable ſome inſtances of a partial deluge in the country lying round the Mediterranean ſea. It has been often ſuppoſed, and 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 of waters from the Atlantic ocean, forced by long continued weſtern winds. The lake, or that ſea, may thus have been ſo raiſed as to everflow 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