DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS. 45 



after quitting the ark, they were conveyed to the 

 other parts of the globe. The disembarkation of 

 the venerable patriarch and his family, followed 

 by all the animals preserved with him in the ark, 

 a scene of universal jubilee to man and beast, 

 such as the world till that day had never wit- 

 nessed, took place on Mount Ararat : the stream 

 of interpreters, ancient and modern, place this 

 mountain in Armenia ; but Shuckford, after Sir 

 Walter Raleigh, seems to think that Ararat was 

 further to the east, and belonged to the great 

 range anciently called Caucasus and Imaus, 

 which terminates in the Himmaleh mountains to 

 the north of India. This opinion seems to receive 

 some confirmation from Scripture, for it is said, 

 " As they journeyed from the east, they found a 

 plain in the land of Shinar " Now the Armenian 

 Ararat is to the north of Babylonia, whereas the 

 Indian is to the east. Again, as the ark rested 

 upon Ararat more than ten weeks before the tops 

 of the mountains were seen, it seems to follow that 

 it must have been a much higher mountain than 

 the generality of those of the old world. The mo- 

 dern Ararat (Agri-Dagh) is not three miles above 

 the level of the sea, whereas the highest peak of 

 the Himmaleh range, Dhawalagiri, is Jive, and 

 the highest mountain in the known world : so that 

 the tops of a great number of mountains would 

 have appeared previously had the ark rested upon 

 the former Ararat, but not so if upon the latter. 



