In the valley of the Rhine, in Alsace, and in many isolated parts of Europe, a particular sort of _diluvium_ forms thick beds; it consists of a yellowish-gray mud, composed of argillaceous matter mixed with carbonate of lime, quartzose and micaceous sand, and oxide of iron. This mud, termed by geologists _loess_, attains in some places considerable thickness. It is recognizable in the neighborhood of Paris. It rises a little both on the right and left, above the base of the mountains of the Black Forest and of the Vosges; and forms thick beds on the banks of the Rhine. The fossils contained in diluvial deposits consist, generally, of terrestrial, lacustrine, or fluviatile shells, for the most part belonging to species still living. In parts of the valley of the Rhine, between Bingen and Basle, the fluviatile loam or _loess_, now under consideration, is seen forming hills several hundred feet thick, and containing, here and there, throughout that thickness, land and fresh-water shells; from which it seems necessary to suppose, according to Lyell, first, a time when the _loess_ was slowly accumulated, then a later period, when large portions of it were removed--and followed by movements of oscillation, consisting, first, of a general depression, and then of a gradual re-elevation of the land. The Asiatic deluge--of which sacred history has transmitted to us the few particulars we know--was the result of the upheaval of a part of the long chain of mountains which are a prolongation of the Caucasus. The earth opening by one of the fissures made in its crust, in course of cooling, an eruption of volcanic matter escaped through the enormous crater so produced. Volumes of watery vapor or steam accompanied the lava discharged from the interior of the globe, which, being first dissipated in clouds and afterward condensing, descended in torrents of rain, and the plains were drowned with the volcanic mud. The inundation of the plains over an extensive radius was the immediate effect of this upheaval, and the formation of the volcanic cone of Mount Ararat, with the vast plateau on which it rests, altogether 17,323 feet above the sea, the permanent result. The event is graphically detailed in the seventh chapter of Genesis.