MATERIALS OF THE ARK. 43- 



sion of the laws of nature in the case of the waters of the Red 

 Sea. Then, again, had the Deluge been partial and confined to 

 the neighborhood of the Euphrates and Tigris, it would be 

 impossible to account for the fact that in remote countries — in 

 Italy, France, Germany, England, the United States — there 

 have been found, in places far from the sea, and upon the tops 

 of high mountains, the teeth and bones of animals, fishes in an 

 entire condition, sea-shells, ears of corn, &c, petrified. The 

 explanation of this has always been derived from the circum- 

 stance of a universal deluge. The fact, too, already mentioned, 

 that the Chinese, the Greeks, and the Indians have traditions 

 of a deluge, seems to be conclusive evidence that that terrible 

 dispensation was not confined to the district which was at that 

 period scriptural ground, but visited alike Palestine and Peru, 

 Canaan and Connecticut. 



We now return to the ark, the period of whose completion 

 we have already given, — the year of the world 1656, or the year 

 before Christ 2348. Three points are now to be considered: — 

 the material of which it was built, its capacity and dimensions, 

 and its form. 



1. The Material of which it was built. The Mosaic account 

 says expressly that it was built of gopher-wood ; but it has 

 never been satisfactorily determined what wood is meant by the 

 term " gopher," Numerous interpretations have been placed upon 

 it: by one authority it is rendered "timber squared by the 

 workman;" by another, "timber made from trees which shoot 

 out quadrangular branches in the same horizontal line," such 

 as cedar and fir ; by another, " smoothed or planed timber;" by 

 another, "wood that does not readily decay," such as boxwood 

 or cedar; by another, "the wood of such trees as abound with 

 resinous, inflammable juices," as the cedar, fir, cypress, pine, &c. 

 That the ark was built of cedar would seem to be probable, 

 from the fact that this wood corresponds more than any other 

 with the numerous significations given to the term "gopher," as 



