636 
MOUNT ARARAT. 
it having been sent off to Erivan a few days before, to allay a 
terrible fever raging amongst its Christian inhabitants. Had I 
known this before I quitted that city, I might have satisfied my 
curiosity to examine it there. I do not particularly describe 
the monastery in this part of my journal, having gone over its 
details in a former page. * 
October 30th. —Yesterday being a fast to all within the walls, 
excepting myself, this morning I breakfasted most substantially 
with the patriarch himself; but “ the salt and the seasoning” 
were certainly his discourse, intelligent, mild, and full of ur¬ 
banity. I left a little memorandum with him, of the English 
traveller’s gratitude; and he presented me with a few curious 
old coins picked up in the neighbourhood, and a ring, which I 
value particularly for the sake of the venerable donor. His 
blessing accompanied the last gift; his blessing to my child, for 
I told him I had one; and good authority tells us, that the 
“ prayer of the righteous man availeth much !” I took my leave 
of the brotherhood at noon, and mounting my horse, was again 
on our way. 
Our course lay along the plain, S. 70° W., with the sublime 
mountain I was so soon to lose all sight of, in full magnificent 
view before us. j* Contemplation of its double summits again 
suggested the idea which had occurred to me when gazing on 
them for the first time ; namely, that on the subsiding of the 
deluge, the ark rather sunk down gradually with the receding 
waters, to between the towering peaks, into the broad haven of 
the bosom of Ararat, than grounded on either of them. And 
on looking over the sixth and eighth chapters of Genesis, the 
* See Vol. I. page 186. to 191. 
f See Vol. I. page 182. to 184. 
