168 NOMOS. 



land was raised more quickly at the creation than 

 after the deluge. Forty days and forty nights passed 

 before the land was submerged, and 111 days and 

 nights were added to these before the flood was at 

 its height. The water, moreover, prevailed upon the 

 earth for 150 days. The ark grounded upon the top 

 of Ararat about the time when the waters ceased to 

 prevail, but the tops of the mountains were not seen 

 until upwards of two months after this time, and the 

 ark had been stationary for five months before the 

 waters were dried up from the earth. The land 

 appears, therefore, to have been raised with much 

 greater slowness after the deluge than at the creation ; 

 but this difference, after all, may not be so great as it 

 appears at first sight. At the deluge the new land 

 did not emerge at once, but in detached spots, where 

 the mountain-tops appeared as islands ; and five full 

 months had elapsed before the land was prepared for 

 Noah. And even this land may have been but a 

 small part of the present earth. It is not improbable, 

 therefore, that all the land did not appear on the 

 third day of the creation, and that months, or even 

 years, had to pass away before the mountain-chains 

 of the antediluvian world had towered to their greatest 

 height, and the abysses of the antediluvian seas had 

 sunk to their lowest depth. It is not impossible, 

 also, that a longer time may have been required to 

 bring up the land after the deluge than at the creation, 

 because it had to be brought up from the depth of the 

 sea, whereas at the creation the land may have had 

 to be brought up only from a few feet or even inches 

 below the surface of the waters. 



