is the Biblical doctrine. It is, therefore, scarcely a poetical metaphor if the text adds, that the fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were closed, the waters ceased to flow from the two sources which had contributed their stores for the catastrophe; and a hundred and fifty days after the commencement of the flood, the billows began to retire from the earth. Exactly after five months, the ark of Noah grounded "on the mountains of Ararat."

If tradition is at all received as a historical witness, the situation of the country, and of the famous mountains of Ararat, is indisputably certain; they form a part of Armenia; for Ararat was used as synonymous with the whole of that country. It is situated between the Araxes and the lakes of Van and Ormiah. The vegetation of Armenia is beautiful and abundant: its pastures rival the renowned fields of Media, and render it one of the most fertile countries of the earth. But the whole land is intersected by extensive tracts of high and naked table-lands; the peaks are generally not of very great elevation, but they are, even in the warmest season, not freed from the snow which perpetually envelopes them. But, in the province of Erivan, which formerly belonged to Persia, but was, in 1828, ceded to Russia, is an extensive plateau which ascends 2,740 feet above the level of the sea; there, about seven geographical miles to the south of the town of Erivan, on the right side of the river Araxes, nearly equidistant from the Black and Caspian Seas, rises a gigantic peak, clad in eternal ice, overtopping the whole region in solitary and gloomy grandeur, and hitherto but rarely trod by human feet; "a giant who rises to spread terror." This is the mountain to which all but universal tradition has given the name of Mount Ararat. And here the second father of mankind is said to have landed when the waters of the flood began to subside.

The Ararat consists of two unequal peaks, both of which disappear in the clouds; the loftier summit is 16,254 l'arisian feet high, whilst the other northwestern pinnacle rises to the elevation of 12,284 Parisian feet above the level of the sea. Both are 12,000 yards distant from each other. According to the Treaty of Turkomanshee (concluded in 1828), the boundary limit between the empires of Russia, Turkey, and Persia passes over the summit of the Little Ararat. The north-eastern declivity of the whole mountain is about 20 versts in length, its northwestern, 30. The region around the mountain makes the impression of a dreary, devastated wilderness; it is haunted by bears, small tigers, lynxes, and lions, and is infested by large and extremely venomous serpents, which frequently impede the progress of caravans; and great numbers of wild boars live in the swamps which abound on the banks of the Araxes, and the foot of the Ararat. At a little distance, the summit does not appear particularly imposing; for numerous lower mountains obstruct the view; and the plateau itself on which it rises, is of considerable height. But, viewed from the vast plain which skirts its base, it appears "as if the hugest mountains of the world had been piled upon each other to form this one sublime immensity of earth, and rock, and snow." Here the aspect is overpowering; it awes the mind with the stupendous power of the Creator; the peaks seem to reach into the very heart of heaven; and the sides disappear dimly in the endless horizon. All the surrounding mountains sink into insignificance. Its shape is almost regular; it is not deformed by any unusual prominence; the slope towards the summit is at first gradual; but becomes abrupt when it reaches the region of snow. If the rays of the sun fall upon it, it shines in indescribable splendour. The shape of the Little Ararat is almost

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a perfect cone, only marked by numerous small furrows radiating from the summit; but seen from the top of the Great Ararat, its head appears like the section of a square truncated pyramid, with rocky elevations on the edges and in the middle. Around are situated the monuments of fearful volcanic eruptions; calcined stones, and masses of cinders give witness of the destructive powers which mysteriously work in the interior of the mountain; in 1783, a devastating eruption is recorded to have taken place; so late as in the year 1840, huge rocks were hurled down by a volcanie earthquake, destroyed many lives, and buried whole villages, and their inhabitants; 3,000 houses were thrown down in the district of Sharur alone; and the havoc was greater still in other parts; the banks of the Araxes gaped in cracks 10 to 12 feet wide, and threw out water and great quantities of sand; while the river itself was in many parts quite dry, and in others was in a boiling agitation; the monastery of St. James, and the village Arghuri were among the first places destroyed by the earthquake; they were overwhelmed by the ruins from the mountain; streams of melted snow, ejected from the raging chasm, covered the fields and gardens around; the wide plains of the Araxes bear still witness of the calamity; deep fissures have been left in the surface of the earth; and these awful convulsions lasted more than two months. The volcanic productions which are found at the southern side of the Caucasus, a distance of 220 versts, are probably violent ejections once borne thither from the Ararat in a formidable explosion. The mound, which evidently once was a volcano, and which is obviously different in its nature from the main body, rises to the height of an imposing mountain. The two peaks of the Ararat are separated by a wild and dark chasm, cutting deeply into the interior of the mountain, filling the spectator with horror and shuddering, containing in its innermost recesses immense masses

of never melting ice of the dimensions of enormous towers. And this stupendous and fearful abyss is probably the exhausted crater of the Ararat, become wider than ever since the eruption of 1840, and, since that catastrophe, exposing on its upper sides the white, yellow, and vitreous feldspars of which the mountain consists. Pious hermits seem, in that fearful precipice, to have sought refuge from the cares and vanities of the world; but robbers and outlaws also have here found almost impregnable strongholds, powerful enough to defy the arm of justice. The vegetation on the sides of the mountain is extremely scanty; stones, sand, and lava form their mass. Eagles and hawks soar round its majestic summits. In the hottest season only, the snow melts on the peak of the Little Ararat; and this event is used as a kind of calendar by the agriculturists in the surrounding villages. In September and October it is generally free of its hoary crust. But the Great Ararat is, for about three miles from the sum nit, in an oblique direction, covered with eternal snow and ice, and, for the greater part of the year, gloomily shrouded in dense and heavy clouds. The summit of this noble mountain forms a slightly convex, almost circular platform, about two hundred paces in circuit. The perpetual ice is unbroken by rock or stone. The prospect from this awful spot is boundless, but desolate; the whole valley of the Araxes seems covered with a grey mist; the town of Erivan is scarcely discernible by the black kernel which it forms; the view to the south is somewhat more distinct; on the western and south-eastern sides appear a great number of mountains with conical summits, and with hollows which indicate their volcanic nature; but it is remarkable, that the Lake Goktschai is visible behind the lofty chain of mountains which enclose it on the south; and lie before the eye like a beautiful darkblue plain. At the margin, the summit slopes off precipitously, especially on the

north-eastern and south-eastern sides. A gentle depression connects this pinnacle with a somewhat lower eminence at a distance of 397 yards. Here it is believed that the ark of Noah rested.

The perils and fatigues of the ascent of this mountain are so considerable, that it was several times unsuccessfully attempted. The rarefaction of the air in the upper part causes violent oppressions of the chest; detached masses of ice and snow frequently roll down, to the greatest danger of the travellers; and huge stones threaten at every moment to crush them; steps must be cut in the ice, and hewn in the rocks of the precipices; and the chasms and abysses, the steepness of some of the rocky tracts, the deep cracks occasionally dividing the ice, and the smoothness of the glaciers, make the experiment one of the utmost risk. The French traveller, Tournefort, undertook the ascent with the same inauspicious result in 1700, as the bashaw of Bayazeed in the beginning of the present century. These disappointments rejoiced the hearts of the Armenians. For, they considered, that the sanctity of the mountain would lose, if its heights were searched by the curiosity of man. It is almost an article of faith with them, that the summit of the Mount Ararat is inaccessible; and they firmly believe, that the ark of Noah still exists on that solemn peak. These convictions have been strengthened by ancient legends, busily spread and confirmed by the Church. It is reported, that the monk James, who was later patriarch of Nisibis, a contemporary of St. Gregory, wished to see, with his own eyes, the sacred ark; he tried an ascent; from exhaustion he frequently fell asleep; and when he awoke, he invariably found, that he had slipped back to the point from whence he had started. A vision in a dream at last informed him of the impossibility of his purpose; but, as a reward for his zeal, God sent him down a piece of the ark, which is preserved, by the Armenians, as their most

precious relic, in the cathedral of Etchmiadzen. However, in spite of this venerable tradition, the German traveller, Dr. Parrot, after two fruitless attempts, effected an indisputable ascent of the summit of the Greater Ararat, on the 9th of October, 1829; and, five years later, in August, 1834, the traces of Dr. Parrot were followed, and his accounts verified, by the Russian traveller Antornomoff. It is, indeed, not the fault of these two intrepid men, if their reports are disdainfully rejected by the pious Armenians as barefaced impositions. The latest successful ascent was made in the course of 1856, by five English travellers (Maj. Rob.Stuart, Maj. Fraser, Rev. Walter Thursby, Mr. Theobald, and Mr. Evans), who have considerably enriched our knowledge of these interesting regions. They saw uninjured the oak cross which Professor Abich had, in 1845, fixed about 1,200 feet below the peak of the cone, and the Russian inscription on it was still perfectly legible. But the fact, that the ark was not found on the summit, caused serious uneasiness, even to European scholars; they thought this a very untoward circumstance; and at last entirely renounced the idea, that the ark landed on Mount Ararat; they now firmly assert, that it happened to float merely in its neighbourhood at the end of the 150 days, but that it was then slowly carried along in an eastward direction (comp. xi. 2); and that the real place of its concealment is entirely withdrawn from human knowledge. But the words, "the ark rested over the mountains of Ararat," exclude this conception; and admit of no other interpretation but that of actual cessation of floating. Nor need we despondingly ask, how Noah, his family, and the numberless animals preserved in the ark, were able to effect the dangerous descent, utterly difficult as it proved for many centuries later to persons furnished with all serviceable auxiliaries and implements; the supposition of a miracle is not even necessary; for, according to the text, they

left the ark only after it had reached the ground with the gradually subsiding

waters.

5. The ark had been raised and borne up above the level of the earth as the waters increased (vii.17); it had been carried along the surface of the waves as long as they were augmenting in quantity (vii. 18); but it ceased to float as soon as the infusion of new waters ceased to agitate the current of the floods; it rested, in the seventh month, over the mountains of Ararat (viii. 4); it gradually descended as the waters subsided; and, on the first day of the tenth month, it grounded on the peaks of Ararat (viii. 5). The highest points of the mountains, which the waves had overtopped by fifteen cubits (vii. 20), now became visible amidst the dreariness of the universal sea (viii. 5), and afforded a resting-place to the only structure then enclosing living creatures.

6-14. From this lofty elevation, Noah enjoyed a distant prospect over the adjacent countries; for forty days more he saw nothing but endless waves around, and a misty sky, enveloped in grey vapours, above; then, at last, he thought it time to test the condition of the earth; he *sent out a raven, which, though delighting in the humid atmosphere, returned periodically to the ark to take its food; but this confirmed to him only that the higher regions were free from the immersing floods; he desired to learn how far the water had subsided, and whether it was already lower over the earth (ver. 8); he therefore sent out the dove, probably seven days after the raven; but that more

delicate bird found nowhere a restingplace; the whole surface of the earth was still covered with water; no trace of vegetation or animal life was visible; and the faithfully-guiding instinct led the dove soon back to Noah, who received it again in the ark. The waters were, however, manifestly decreasing; after other seven days the dove was again despatched; it could now stay out nearly a whole day; but towards the evening it returned with a fresh olive-leaf in its mouth, as a cheering proof that the tops, at least, of the trees had emerged from the floods, although the return itself of the freedom-loving bird satisfied him that the earth was not sufficiently restored to its normal condition to yield the necessary food. Another week was enough to work this longdesired effect. The dove was sent out a third time, and returned no more. Not many days later, in the beginning of the first month, the surface of the earth was free from the waters (ver. 13), and on the twenty-seventh day of the second month, the ground itself was perfectly dry (ver. 14), so that God could now command Noah to leave the ark with all those who had been saved in it. This is the connection of the narrative; thus understood it is not only clear, but logical and forcible in the highest degree.-It is usual to conceive the raven here as the bird which easily discovers, and greedily feeds on carrion; and to understand the dove and the olive-leaf, as harbingers of restored peace. But this is to be taken with a certain necessary limitation. The raven, the name of which signifies the black