(d) Thus we seem to have a middle course pointed out between the two extremes; the one, that by the Deluge the ocean and the land were made to exchange places for permanency; the other, that very little alteration was produced in the configuration of the earth's surface. Indeed, such alteration might not be considerable in places very distant from the focus of elevation; but near that central district it could not but be very great. An alteration of level, five hundred times less than that effected by the upthrow of thc Himalayas, would change the beds of many rivers, and quite obliterate others.
(e) From all that can be ascertained it seems to have been a tract of country, the finest im aginable, lying probably between the 33d and the 37th degree of north latitude. of such moderate elevation, and so adjusted. with respect to moun tain ranges and water-sheds and forests, as to preserve the most agreeable and salubrious condi tions of temperature and all atmospheric changes. Its surface must therefore have been constantly diversified by hill and plain. From its hill-sides, between the croppings out of their strata, springs trickled out, whose streamlets, joining in their (-nurses. tormed at the bottom small rivers, which again receiving other streams (which had in the same way flowed down from the higher grounds), bccame,in the bottom of every valley,a more con siderable river. These valleys joined together, as
must consequently the streams contained in them; wider. valleys or larger plains appeared; the river of each united itself with that of its next neighbor ; others contributed their waters as the augmenting stream proceeded; and finally it quitted the land of Eden, to continue its course to some sea, or to lose its waters by the evaporation of the atmos phere or the absorption of the sandy desert. In the finest part of this land of Eden the Creator had formed an enclosure, probably by rocks and forests and rivers, and had filled it with every product of nature conducive to use and happi ness. Due moisture, of both the ground and the air, was preserved by the streamlets from the nearest hills, and the rivulets from the more dis tant ; and such streamlets and rivulets, collected according to the levels of the surrounding coun try (It proceeded from Eden') flowed off after wards in four larger streams, each of which thus became the source of a great river.
After the explication given, it may seem the most suitable to look for the object of our ex ploration, the site of Paradise, in the south of Ar menia. J. P. S.
For a learned and ingenious work on the sub ject see Paradise at the North Pole, by Pres. Warren, Boston Univ. (See EDEN ; PARADISE, RIVERS OF.)