1. The original surface-rocks, underneath the Drift, are, we have seen, decomposed and changed, for varying depths of from one to one hundred feet, by fire; they are metamorphosed, and their metallic constituents vaporized out of them by heat. 2. Only tremendous heat could have lifted the water of the seas into clouds, and formed the age of snow and floods evidenced by the secondary Drift. 3. The traditions of the following races tell us that the earth was once swept by a great conflagration: _a_. The ancient Britons, as narrated in the mythology of the Druids. _b_. The ancient Greeks, as told by Hesiod. _c_. The ancient Scandinavians, as appears in the _Elder Edda_ and _Younger Edda_. _d_. The ancient Romans, as narrated by Ovid. _e_. The ancient Toltecs of Central America, as told in their sacred books. {p. 193} _f_. The ancient Aztecs of Mexico, as transcribed by Fray de Olmos. _g_. The ancient Persians, as recorded in the Zend-Avesta. _h_. The ancient Hindoos, as told in their sacred books. _i_. The Tahoe Indians of California, as appears by their living traditions. Also by the legends of-- _j_. The Tupi Indians of Brazil. _k_. The Tacullies of British America. _1_. The Ute Indians of California and Utah. _m_. The Peruvians. _n_. The Yurucares of the Bolivian Cordilleras. _o_. The Mbocobi of Paraguay. _p_. The Botocudos of Brazil. _q_. The Ojibway Indians of the United States. _r_. The Wyandot Indians of the United States. _s_. Lastly, the Dog-rib Indians of British Columbia. We must concede that these legends of a world-embracing conflagration represent a race-remembrance of a great fact, or that they are a colossal falsehood--an invention of man. If the latter, then that invention and falsehood must have been concocted at a time when the ancestors of the Greeks, Romans, Hindoos, Persians, Goths, Toltecs, Aztecs, Peruvians, and the Indians of Brazil, the United States, the west coast of South America, and the northwestern extremity of North America, and the Polynesians, (who have kindred traditions,) all dwelt together, as one people, alike in language and alike in color of their hair, eyes, and skin. At that time, therefore, all the widely separated regions, now inhabited by these races, must have been without human inhabitants; the race must have been a mere handful, and dwelling in one spot. {p. 194} What vast lapses of time must have been required before mankind slowly overflowed to these remote regions of the earth, and changed into these various races speaking such diverse tongues! And if we take the ground that this universal tradition of a world-conflagration was an invention, a falsehood, then we must conclude that this handful of men, before they dispersed, in the very infancy of the world, shared in the propagation of a prodigious lie, and religiously perpetuated it for tens of thousands of years.