A violent earthquake, with eruptions from volcanic mountains, and the sinking of land into the sea, would evidently produce such a scene as this. We know that at one period in the earth's history, such scenes must have been of frequent occurrence. The science of geology demonstrates this fact to us. _Local deluges_ were of frequent occurrence, and that some persons may have been saved on one, or perhaps many, such occasions, by means of a raft or boat, and that they may have sought refuge on an eminence, or mountain, does not seem at all improbable. During the _Champlain_ period in the history of the world--which came after the _Glacial_ period--the climate became warmer, _the continents sank_, and there were, consequently, continued _local floods_ which must have destroyed considerable animal life, including man. The foundation of the deluge myth may have been laid at this time. Some may suppose that this is dating the history of man too far back, making his history too remote; but such is not the case. There is every reason to believe that man existed for ages _before the Glacial epoch_. It must not be supposed that we have yet found remains of the earliest human beings; there is evidence, however, that man existed during the _Pliocene_, if not during the _Miocene_ periods, when hoofed quadrupeds, and Proboscidians abounded, human remains and implements having been found mingled with remains of these animals.[29:1] Charles Darwin believed that the animal called man, might have been properly called by that name at an epoch as remote as the _Eocene_ period.[29:2] Man had probably lost his hairy covering by that time, and had begun to look human. Prof. Draper, speaking of the antiquity of man, says: "So far as investigations have gone, they _indisputably_ refer the existence of man to a date remote from us by many _hundreds of thousands of years_," and that, "it is difficult to assign a shorter date from the last glaciation of Europe than a quarter of a million of years, _and human existence antedates that_."[29:3] Again he says: "Recent researches give reason to believe that, under low and base grades, the existence of man can be traced back into the _Tertiary_ times. He was contemporary with the Southern Elephant, the Rhinoceros-leptorhinus, the great Hippopotamus, perhaps even in the _Miocene_, contemporary with the Mastodon."[29:4] Prof. Huxley closes his "Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature," by saying: "Where must we look for primeval man? Was the oldest _Homo Sapiens_ Pliocene or Miocene, _or yet more ancient_? . . . If any form of the doctrine of progressive development is correct, _we must extend by long epochs the most liberal estimate that has yet been made of the antiquity of man_."[30:1]