The Rev. Gleig in his late history of the Bible, where like Hales and Russel, he has at last adopted the computation of the Septuagint and Josephus, reckons 5411 years from Adam to our era, the oriental Christians reckon 5508 years, the Toltecas, reckoned 5099 years. Gleig puts Noah's flood 2259 years after Adam. The Chinese and Hindu chronology are partly fabulous; but may be reconciled to these periods; as well as to the second cataclysm of the earth; that of Peleg according to the Biblists. The only knowledge the Bible gives about it, is that the earth was split, broken or divided, in the time of the patriarch or dynasty of Peleg; who lived or lasted from 531 to 870 after Noah's flood. But David has sung this cataclysm in the 18th psalm. The Chinese account brings this second flood to the year 2296 before Christ, or 858 years after the former. The Hindu account concealed in many fables agrees also with this period. But it appears to have lasted longer, and many years. It is evidently in date the mistaken Hebrew flood, blending both into one, and annihilating the place between them. The Chinese account distinctly speaks of both, the first was under _Yunti_, the second under _Yao_, and 42 emperors are mentioned between the two floods.
In America, it is often difficult to distinguish which is meant by the various imperfect traditions: yet in Mexico and Peru, there are at least two cataclysms mentioned by the annals or traditions. Also among some northern tribes. The Linapi annals or songs allude to the second, which broke by volcanoes the _Lusasaki_ (burnt land) and separated America or _Akomenaki_ (snake island) from Asia to Behring strait.
Thus the real antidiluvian periods lasted nearly 3000 years from Adam's epocha, or 3212 by oriental computation. The interval between Adam and Noah ought to be called the Adamic period, that between Noah and Peleg's floods the Noahic period. It was at this last convulsion that the earth took its actual form. The Straits of Gibraltar, Calais, Messina, Hellespont, Bosphorus, Babelmandel, Behring, Malaca, Sunda, &c., were then formed. The Atlantis Island in the Atlantic Ocean and the Island Lanca in the Indian Ocean were sunk. The Azores, Madeira, Canaries, &c. are fragments of the Atlantis: Ceylon, Madagascar, &c. the fragments of Lanca.(9)