282 Mr. J. Phillips on the Ancient and partly buried 



evidence which we possess upon the subject ought to lead 

 us to a very different conclusion ; and with respect to the 

 former assumption, I will refer to the paper " on the former 

 extent of the Persian Gulf," which appeared in your Number 

 for last month (February), from which, if the facts adduced in 

 it are correct, the inference would appear to be that the ark 

 could not possibly have been built anywhere in the neigh- 

 bourhood alluded to by Mr. Carter. 



I am not aware of any ground (beyond mere tradition, 

 which is not to be depended upon,) for attributing any parti- 

 cular locality to Noah's antediluvian residence, excepting that, 

 in the absence of all arguments for a contrary opinion, the 

 most philosophical course is to assume that in the neighbour- 

 hood where the ark rested, there also it was built ; in which 

 case Armenia or the north of Mesopotamia has the greatest 

 claim to be considered in that light. 



It is not, however, intended to enter here upon the discus- 

 sion of this subject, neither shall I attempt to determine to 

 what particular species of tree the gopher- wood belonged; but 

 agreeing as I entirely do with Mr. Carter, " that a reference 

 to the existing productions of the climate in which the ark 

 was built may not be irrelevant to such an inquiry," I will, 

 in conclusion, merely remark, that the only wood which, in 

 the present day, grows in any considerable quantities through- 

 out the country of Armenia, from the frontiers of Persia as 

 far as Asia Minor, is (as I have been lately informed) a 

 species of white pine, the product of which, namely, pitch, is 

 an article of great traffic among the natives : hence it would 

 seem not unreasonable to imagine that Noah and his sons, 

 after receiving the Divine directions, may have proceeded 

 into the pine forests of their native country, and there 

 built the ark of the wood of the trees ")D j"'VV (hatze-gopher), 



which furnished at the same time the pitch "133 (kopher), or 



1S?\ (gopher), which was necessary for covering and preserving 



it, and for caulking it and rendering it water-tight. 

 I am, Gentlemen, yours, &c. 

 March 8, 1824. CHARLES T. BEKE. 



L. On the Ancient and partly buried Forests of Holderness. 

 By John Phillips, Esq., F.G.S., Professor of Geology in 

 King's College, London*. 



1. CUBTERRANEAN forests, as they are termed, 

 ^ abound so much on all the coasts of England, and have 



* Read to the Yorkshire Philosophical Society on the 4th of March 

 1834 ; and communicated b}- the -Author. 



