BUCKLAND, WILLIAM. - NOAH'S FLOOD.

Account of an assemblage of Fossil Teeth and ones of Elephant, Rhinoceros, Hippopotamus, Bear, Tiger, and Hyaena, and sicteen other animals; discovered in a cave at Kirkdale, Yorkshire, in the year 1821: with a comparative view of five similar caverns in various parts of England, and others on the Continent. Read February 21, 1822.

(London, W.Nicol, 1822). 4to. No wrappers as extracted from "Philosophical Transactions" 1822 - Part I. Pp. 171-236 a. 12 fine engraved plates. Clean and fine.

First printing of milestone paper in the history of geology, as Buckland here presents his cave-discoveries and uses them as supporting evidence for his theory that these finds proves that the earth has gone through a series of convulsions, the last of which he identifies with the biblical deluge. "On these grounds I have felt myself fully justified in applying the epithet 'diluvial', to the result of this great convulsion, of 'antediluvial' to the state of things immediately preceding it, and 'postdiluvial' or alluvial, to that which succeeded it, and has continued to the prsent time" (p. 172 in the paper offered). Thus Buckland became one of the leading "diluvialists", claiming the deluge as a leading geological event.
Buckland presented his analysis of this universal flood in his book "Reliquiae diluvianae;...." the year after publicationof his cave-findings, 1823. Here he estimates the flood to have taken place 5.000-6.000 years before the present.

William Buckland (1784-1856), professor of geology at Oxford University, was later appointed Dean of Westminster. In 1823 he identified the fossil remains of elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, horse, ox, deer, hyena, tiger, bear, wolf, fox, rodents and birds found at Kirkdale Cave in Yorkshire. In a famous passage from Vindiciae Geologicae Buckland wrote:

... "the grand fact of an universal deluge at no very remote period is proved on grounds so decisive and incontrovertible, that, had we never heard of such an event from Scripture, or any other, authority, Geology of itself must have called in the assistance of some such catastrophe, to explain the phenomena of diluvian action which are universally presented to us, and which are unintelligible without recourse to a deluge exerting its ravages at a period not more ancient than that announced in the Book of Genesis."

Order-nr.: 43116