He next proceeds to establish his average. The twelve sons of Jacob had between them 54 children, which gives on an average 4½ to each. It is worthy of note that in making this estimate, he studiously excludes the family of Jacob himself, who had _twelve sons_. If this family had been added to the others, the average would have been considerably increased. But there is yet a more radical defect in his argument. The 12 sons of Jacob had 54 children _before_ the descent into Egypt; how many had they after? Dr. Colenso _assumes_ that they had none. His assumption is not only without proof; it is contrary to every probability. These men were at the time in the full vigour of life. Reuben the eldest, if we take Dr. Colenso’s own computation, was about 46; Joseph was but 39; Benjamin younger still. It is, therefore, most reasonable to suppose that several of them, if not all, had children born to them during the sojourn in Egypt. This will be the more evident when we remember that Jacob, their father, had 12 sons born to him _after he had reached_ the age of 80; and that Isaac, their grandfather, was 60 when Jacob and Esau were born. Moreover we can produce a distinct statement with regard to Joseph, that he had children born to him after the descent, “And Jacob said unto Joseph: … Thy two sons Ephraim and Manasseh, who were born unto thee in the land of Egypt, before I came unto the land of Egypt, are mine; Ephraim and Manasseh, as Reuben and Simeon shall be mine. And _thy issue which thou begettest after them_, shall be thine, and shall be called after the name of their brethren in their inheritance” (_Gen._, xlviii. 3, 5, 6). It may be objected that in the twenty-sixth chapter of Numbers, where the grandsons of Jacob are enumerated, no mention is made but of those born before the descent. We answer, that in that chapter those only are enumerated who _gave their names to families_; and it would seem that the grandsons of Jacob born after the descent, did not give their names to families, but, like the younger sons of Joseph, were “called after the name of their brethren in their inheritance”. We may observe that this oversight of our author has drawn him into a twofold error. First, it has led him to _underestimate the average number of children_ in each family; secondly, it has led him to _underestimate the number of males in the first generation_, since _all_ the grandsons of Jacob, according to his argument, belonged to the first generation.