44 



HISTORY OF THE SEA. 



it is quadrangular in its branches, durable, almost incorruptible, 

 resinous, and highly inflammable ; from the fact, too, that it is 

 abundant in Asia, and known to have been employed by the 

 Assyrians and Egyptians in the construction of ships. One or 

 two authorities, however, maintain that the ark was made of 

 the wood of the cypress, their grounds being that the cypress 

 was considered by the ancients the most durable wood against 

 rot and worms; that it abounded in Assyria, where the ark was 

 probably built ; and that it was frequently employed in the 

 construction of ships, especially by Alexander, who built a 

 whole fleet from the cypress groves in the neighborhood of 

 Babylon. 



2. Its Capacity and Dimensions. The proportions of the 

 ark, as given in the sacred volume, have been examined and com- 

 pared with the greatest precision by the most learned and accu- 

 rate calculators; and, assuming the cubit to have been of the 

 value of eighteen inches of the present day, it follows that the ark 

 was four hundred and fifty feet long, by seventy-five wide, by forty- 

 five high. From these data its burden has been deduced, and is 

 now understood to have been forty-two thousand four hundred 

 and thirteen tons. Such a construction would have allowed 

 ample room for the eight persons who were to inhabit it, — Noah 

 and his wife, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and their wives, — about 

 two hundred and fifty pair of four-footed beasts, the fowls of the 

 air, such reptiles and insects as could not live under water, together 

 with the food necessary for their subsistence for a twelvemonth. It 

 has been doubted whether Noah took with him into the ark speci- 

 mens of all living creatures. It is reasonable to suppose that, as 

 the world was nearly seventeen centuries old, the animal creation 

 had spread itself over a large portion of the antediluvian earth, 

 and that certain species had consequently become indigenous in 

 certain climates. It is therefore probable that many species 

 were not to be found in the country where Noah dwelt and 

 where he built the ark. We are not told in the Bible that any 



