484 
GEOLOGICAL FEATURES OF OUR GLOBE. 
Another corroboration is to be found in the statement that 
animal food was allowed after the Deluge, and that human 
life became speedily shortened, until it fell to its present 
length ; and further, that the descendants of Noah, journey- 
ing from the east came to the land of Shinar.* 
A considerable period seems to have elapsed before they 
descended to the lower plains after the Deluge ; this could 
not possibly have been from Mount Ararat in Mesopotamia, 
which, neither from its elevation nor position, w'ould agree 
with the Scriptural narrative, for those coming from the 
East could not have reached those plains which are justly 
accounted the cradle of our race ; it appears far more likely 
that Moses, a resident in Egypt, had no idea of Mount 
Ararat in Mesopotamia ; at that period, the Egyptians were 
probably well acquainted with India, had intimate relations 
with it, and that the Prophet in his vision beheld the peaks 
of the Himalaya, the loftiest in the world, on whose northern 
sides are likewise found the earth's highest plains, which 
attain an elevation of 15,000 feet, and still testify the fact by 
the very name they bear to this day, of Thibet, or the ark ; 
and thence journeying from the East, Noah's descend- 
ants would reach the plains of Shinar, and part of them 
might enter China, which claims a like antiquity with the 
oldest sections of the human family ; if this be correct, it is 
evident the drying up of the earth's surface was gradual, and 
that even now it is still going on. The Caspian, the Sea of 
Aral, and other large inland waters, are slowly decreasing — 
others have already become desiccated ; the deserts of Africa, 
Asia, and America, with its prairies and pampas, with the 
central regions of Australia, may be mentioned as striking 
proofs of the fact. 
There is, however, a monument remaining, which records 
the truth of the Deluge as plainly as if it had been engraved 
and a dove with a branch in its mouth, in one of their hieroglyphical paintings. 
In China, the memory of the flood is preserved in one of their hieroglyphics, 
representing a mouth, figure eight, and a boat, which reads eight mouths in a 
boat ; and throughout Polynesia an unmistakeable allusion to it is found in 
their traditions. 
* Gen. xi. 2. 
