144 GEOLOGY AND HISTORY 



mergence of the whole country within sight, and the 

 consequent destruction of animal life ; and here the 

 enumeration covers all land animals, and the terms 

 used are thus more general than those applied to the 

 animals preserved in the ark. The Deluge culminated, 

 in so far as our narrator observed, in one hundred 

 and fifty days. 



His next experience is of a gale of wind, accom- 

 panied or followed by cessation of the rain and of the 

 inflow of the oceanic waters. 1 The waters then de- 

 creased, not regularly, but by an intermittent process, 

 ' going and returning ' ; but whether this was a tidal 

 phenomenon or of the nature of earthquake waves we 

 have no information. At length the ark grounded, 

 apparently on high ground or in thick weather, for 

 no land was visible ; but at length, after two months, 

 neighbouring hill-tops were seen. 



The incident of sending out birds to test the 

 recession of the waters deserves notice, because of its 

 apparently trivial nature, because it appears with 

 variations in the Chaldean account, and because it 

 has been treated in a remarkably unscientific manner 

 by some critics. It indicates the uncertainty which 

 would arise in the mind of the patriarch because of 

 the fluctuating decrease of the waters, and possibly 

 also a misty condition of the air preventing a distinct 

 view of distant objects. The birds selected for the 

 purpose were singularly appropriate. The raven is 



1 Genesis viii. 1,2:' And Elohim made a wind to pass over the 

 earth, and the waters abated,' &c. 



V. 



