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mountain.’ Herbert is here speaking as though he thought 
these Jews really knew something about the sve f wheu they 
must be as ignorant on the subject as the people of Del Fuego: 
for whether they belonged to the race of Jews carried off by Sal- 
monassar, or not, it is just the same, as it was 1600 years after 
the flood that the Assyrian king transported lis captives; so 
that, even of traditions, none could be nore flimsvy—how should 
strangers who knew nothing of the country for 1600 years after 
the event get hold of their tradition? 
Sir Jobn Chardin informs us that Ararat lies twelve leagues 
east of Erivan. He considers it the same as the Gordizan 
Mountains. ‘The Armenians,’ says this traveller, ‘ have a 
tradition that the ark is s¢‘J/ on the top of it—the niountain is 
totally destitute of inhabitants, and perpetually covered half-way 
from the top with snow.’ 
“ Strnys, another traveller thither, is more minute in his ac- 
count of Ararat. After a description of the stone and minerals 
of the reck, he tells us, ‘ that he went up the mountain to cure 
@ hermit who was secluded there, of a rupture—that it is sur- 
rounded by several rows of clouds, the first of which is dark and 
thick ; the next extremely cold, and full of snow; and the third 
so int tensely cold that he was ‘scarcely able to endure it—that 
above this uppermost stratum, and where the hermit’s cell was, 
the air was quite mild and .temperate—and the recluse declared 
to him, that ‘he had neither felt a breeze of wind nor a drop 
of rain for twenty-five years, which was the time he had lived 
upon the rock’—that he further told him, ‘that the air on the 
top was much more cali than where he resided—that it was 
not subject to change—and that, therefore, the ark continued 
undecayed’ — that he obtained from ‘the hermit a piece of wood 
of a brownish-red colour; anda piece of the rock on which he 
alleged ‘that the ark rested ;’ in attestation of which he gave 
Struys a certificate to the following effect: 
“© Certificate.—I with mine own hand cut. off from the ark 
the piece of wood made in the form of a cross; and broke off 
from the rock, on which the ark rested, that same. piece of 
stoue.’ (Signed) § Domryicus ALEXANDER RoMANUs.. 
‘Dated Mount Ararat, July 22, 1670.’ 
*¢Struys also informs us, ‘ that he was seven days travelling 
from Erivan to this mountain;’ and ¢ that it is an entire rock 
without earth, trees, or verdure upon it.’ He has given usa 
map of the Caspian Sea, from which it appears that Ararat is 
towards the western coast of that sea, north of the river Kir, and 
somewhere about the southern extremity of Caucasus ; being 
about 300 miles east-bearing-northward from Erivan. 
* Thevenot, and other travellers, bring us also reports; but 
vary 
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