J'J-J LIGHTS nr THE CHURCH AND SCIENCE vi 



ternth l;iy of the seventh month, the ark, which 

 had previously floated on its surface, grounds upon 

 tin- "mountains of Ararat" 1 (Gen. viii. 34). 

 Then, as Diestel has acutely pointed out 

 (" Sintflut," p. 13), we are to imagine the further 

 Hihsidence of the flood to take place so gradually 

 that it was not until nearly two months and a-halt' 

 after this time (that is to say, on the first day of 

 tin- tenth month) that the "tops of the moun- 

 tains" became visible. Hence it follows that, if 

 the ark drew even as much as twenty feet of 

 water, the level of the inundation fell very slowly 

 at a rate of only a few inches a day until the 

 top of the mountain on which it rested became 

 visible. This is an amount of movement \vhidi, 

 if it took place in the sea, would be overlooked 

 by ordinary people on the shore. But the 

 Ifeaopotamian plain slopes gently, from an eleva- 

 tion of 500 or 600 feet at its northern end, to the 



at its southern end, with hardly so much as 

 a notable ridge to break its uniform flatness, for 

 300 to 400 miles. These being the conditions of 

 the case, the following inquiry naturally presents 

 itself: nut, be it observed, as a recondite problem. 



rated by mode !-)i speculation, but as a plain 

 suggestion flowing out of that very ordinary and 

 archaic piece of knowledge that water cannot be 



1 It i- vi-iy iliMihtlul if thi^ in.-an.s the region of tin-. Aniiuii;m 

 ion |.nili:ili]y it lrsiirn;itrs some |',iit ritln'i <!' Hi.- 

 Kui'i "\ ill it.s suutli-ciisti'in continuation. 



