vii HASISADRA'S ADVENTURE 279 



waters since that time ; and that the Chaldean 

 version of the legend of a flood in the Euphrates 

 valley is, of all those which are extant, the only 

 one which is even consistent with probability, 

 since it depicts a local inundation, not more severe 

 than one which might be brought about by a 

 concurrence of favourable conditions at the 

 present day ; and which might probably have been 

 more easily effected when the Persian Gulf 

 extended farther north. Hence, the recourse to 

 the " glacial epoch " for some event which might 

 colourably represent a flood, distinctly asserted 

 by the only authority for it to have occurred in 

 historical times, is peculiarly unfortunate. Even 

 a Welsh antiquary might hesitate over the 

 supposition that a tradition of the fate of Moel 

 Tryfaen, in the glacial epoch, had furnished the 

 basis of fact for a legend which arose among 

 people whose own experience abundantly supplied 

 them with the needful precedents. Moreover, if 

 evidence of interchanges of land and sea are to be 

 accepted as " confirmations " of Noah's deluge, 

 there are plenty of sources for the tradition to 

 be had much nearer than Wales. 



The depression now filled by the Red Sea, for 

 example, appears to be, geologically, of very 

 recent origin. The later deposits found on its 

 shores, two or three hundred feet above the sea 

 level, contain no remains older than those of the 

 present fauna ; while, as I have already mentioned, 



