316 GEOLOGIES AND DELUGES 



o'clock on October 24th it reached Pondicherry ; it then 

 slightly altered its direction and veered more to the south- 

 west, and on the 25th, at midday, it crossed the western 

 Ghats, and then divided into two parts ; the south centre 

 need not concern us. The northern centre travelled 

 north-eastwards towards the Persian gulf, and was felt 

 from the gulf of Aden to cape Guardafui, wrecking in 

 this tract a number of vessels. 



The greatest estimated height of storm-waves is from 

 40 to 45 feet, and, as Suess points out, it must have 

 needed a much greater wave than this to drown out all 

 Mesopotamia up to the Nizir hills. How much greater, 

 is a question we are fortunately able to answer positively, 

 thanks to the accurate measurements made by the 

 engineer Czernick during a survey for a projected rail- 

 way. The Tigris rises very slowly from its mouth inland, 

 but at Bagdad it is already 154 feet above the sea-level, 

 and at Mansurijah, the lowest point where its tributary 

 Diala Tschai emerges from the Hamrin mountains, the 

 height is given as 285 feet ; but the land of Nizir lies 

 even still more to the north than this, and the Lower 

 Zab, which cuts through it, cannot have a less elevation 

 than 600 or 700 feet. No storm-wave of which we have 

 any record, no recorded earthquake wave, nor any com- 

 bination of the two, approaches even remotely the height 

 that would be required to carry the sea even to Bagdad ; 

 while as for the Nizir mountains, the Valiant Pherson, 

 who " nearly spoilt the flood," might have drank up all 

 the sea-water which came there without any assistance 

 from Glenlivat. If we admit that the Tigris valley was 

 ever submerged up to this point and restored to its 

 original condition in the course of fourteen days, we are 

 confronted with a catastrophe not only stupendous in 

 degree, but of a nature beyond our present powers of 

 explanation. 



