138 GEOLOGY AND HISTORY 



thus implying the means of propulsion as in an 

 actual ship. 



Noah is instructed, in addition to his own family, 

 to provide for animals, two of every kind ; but these 

 very general terms are afterwards limited by the 

 words iiph, bemah, and remesh, which define birds, 

 cattle, and small quadrupeds as those specially 

 intended. Noah's ark was not a menagerie, but 

 rather like a cattle-ship, capable perhaps of accom- 

 modating as many animals as one of those steamers 

 which now transfer to England the animal produce 

 of Western fields and prairies. The animals por- 

 trayed on the ancient monuments of Egypt and 

 Assyria, however, inform us that, in early post- 

 diluvial times, and therefore probably also in the 

 time of Noah, a greater variety of animals were 

 under the control of man than is the case in any one 

 country at present. 1 In the passage referring to the 

 embarkation, only the cattle and fowls are mentioned, 

 but seven pairs are to be taken of the clean species 

 which could be used as food. 2 The embarkation 

 having been completed on the very day when the 

 Deluge commenced, we have next the narrative of 

 the Flood itself. Here it is noteworthy that God 



1 Houghton, Natural History of the Ancients, and Transactions oj 

 the Society of Biblical Archeology ; also representations of tame ante- 

 lopes, &c., on Egyptian monuments. 



2 This has been considered a later addition ; but the practice of all 

 primitive peoples has sanctioned the distinction of clean and unclean 

 beasts, which is merely defined in the Mosaic law, not instituted for 

 the first time. 



