A destructive deluge sweeping over the surface of the earth;

TCD MS 10516 folio 79 verso

TCD MS 10516 folio 79 verso

[12th October 1916] the traditions of humanity all over the globe, both in the old and the new world, should tell of a destructive deluge sweeping over the surface of the earth, of mankind overwhelmed in the rush of waters, and the world re-peopled by some few souls stranded on the highest mountains. That the Indian tribes of the Orinoco, the inhabitants of the Pacific islands, the ancient civilisations of Asia should all find similar facts in the past traditions of their race is a matter of high interest in the legendary records of peoples. It may be, as some have thought, that the men of those ages lost in antiquity could discern in the alluvial deposits of the plains and the shells on the summits of the mountains evidence of waters overflowing the earth and leaving on the land the record of