and References Bishop Wilkins at 21.88 English inches, the following Authorities, calculations and comparisons have been made :— Fansen's Model of the Ark. 464'08 492'31 630°2 21,761*50-94 23,092*25-94 ... Keel, or length for tonnage Tonnage according to old law... 18,231 58-94 A curious proof of the suitability of the Ark for the purpose for which it was intended was given by a Dutch merchant, Peter Jansen, Mennonite, who, in the year 1604, had a ship built at Hoorn of the same proportions, (though not of the same size) as Noah's Ark. It was 120 feet long, 20 broad, and 12 deep. This vessel, unsuitable as it was for quick voyages, was found remarkably well adapted for freightage. It was calculated that it would hold a-third more lading than other vessels without requiring more hands to work it. Olive branch a peace sign. ILLUSTRATION OF THE OLIVE BRANCH AS "I have been reminded in the South Seas of the olive branches, which, ever since the days of Noah, have been emblematical of peace. One day in 1848, when Captain Morgan, Mr. Nisbet, and I were backing out into deep water, to get clear of some shallow coral patches, and to look for a better passage for our boat, the natives on the shore, thinking we were afraid of them, ran and broke off branches from the trees, and waved or held them erect in their raised hands. I afterwards learned that our conjecture at the time was right; it was a sign of peace and friendship. A party, for instance, who had been fighting, and wished to sue for peace, would approach the enemy with green boughs, as a signal of their pacific and friendly Turner's "Polynesia." intentions." NOTE ON THE SITUATION OF ARARAT. References and After much controversy, it is now generally admitted Authorities. that Ararat was situated in the north-eastern part of Agri-dah. Armenia. The mountain is now known to the Armenians by the name of Massis; to the Turks by the name of Agri-Dah, or steep mountain; to the Persians by the name of Kuh-i-Nuh, or Noah's mountain. 66 "Ararat" occurs nowhere in Scripture as the name of a mountain, but only as the name of a country, upon the "mountains" of which the ark rested during the subsidence of the flood. Nevertheless, tradition points to a mountain in Armenia, locally known as "The heavy or ""Mother of the World," or Great Mountain," 66 Noah's Mountain," which consists of two immense conical peaks, towering in massive and majestic grandeur from the valley of the Aras, the ancient Araxes. "It appeared," says Ker Porter, as if the hugest mountains of the world had been piled upon each other to form this one sublime immensity of earth and rocks and snow." Several attempts have been made to reach the top of Ararat, but few persons have got beyond the limit of perpetual snow. A successful ascent was made, in 1829, by Dr. Parrot, a German; and the height of the higher of the two peaks found to be 16,254 feet above the level of the sea. The summit consists of a slightly convex, almost circular platform, about 200 feet in diameter, composed of eternal ice, unbroken by rock or stone. There has recently been accomplished a successful ascent, but the immense difficulties encountered by the travellers make it impossible to conceive of the descent of Noah, and the creatures from it. CURIOUS LEGEND OF THE FIRST VINE The Morren. PLANT. When Noah planted the first vine and retired, Satan The First approached and said “I will nourish you, charming plant!" He quickly fetched three animals-a sheep, a Vine Plant. and References lion, and a hog—and killed them, one after another, near Authorities, the vine. The virtues of the blood of these three animals penetrated it, and are still manifest in its growth. When a man drinks one goblet of wine, he is then agreeable, gentle, friendly-that is the nature of the lamb. When he drinks two, he is like a lion, and says, 'Who is like me?' he then talks of stupendous things. When he drinks more, his senses forsake him; and, at length, he wallows in the mire. Need it be said, that he then reRichardson. sembles the hog? MR. G. SMITH'S RECENT DISCOVERY. "The cuneiform inscription which I have recently found and translated gives a long and full account of the Deluge. It contains the version or tradition of this event which existed in the early Chaldean period at the city of Erech (one of the cities of Nimrod), now represented by the ruins of Warka. In this newly discovered inscription, the account of the Deluge is put as a narrative into the mouth of Xisuthrus or Noah. He relates the wickedness of the world, the command to build the ark, its building, the filling of it, the deluge, the resting of the ark on a mountain, the sending out of the birds, and other matters. The cuneiform account is much longer and fuller than that of Berosus, and has several details omitted both by the Bible and the Chaldean historian. This inscription opens up many questions of which we knew nothing previously, and it is connected with a number of other details of Chaldean history which will be both interesting and important. This is the first time any inscription has been found with an account of an event mentioned in Genesis." "But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat. And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man. Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed."-Gen. ix. 4-6. "And Satan answered the Lord, and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life."-Job ii. 4. and Nature's Magna Charta. MATTHEW HENRY, writing of the above passage from References the book of Genesis, calls it the "Magna Charta of Authorities the new Kingdom of Nature." The description is a suitable and suggestive one. It is the foundation of society; the pledge of the rights, and liberties, and relations, and responsibilities of the human family. Noah stepped forth upon a cleansed earth; by his family it was to be re-peopled, and this was the precisely fitting time for a clear statement of the conditions on which humanity should possess the soil; and of the terms upon which man might have and hold and use the bounties in the midst of which he was placed. References and God has been pleased to make LIFE—human lifeAuthorities. the thing of highest value in His world. No diamond Life the thing of the can compare with life. No mines of silver, or streams highest value. Arrange. ments for the of gold, can come into comparison with life. And the most powerful of all our instincts-the instinct of self-preservation-is graciously fitted by God to match His one foundation law for society,-"Whoso sheddeth man's blood by man shall his blood be shed." A man has not lost all until he has lost his life. A man is not cannot be really poor while he holds his life. No matter how miserable a man may be, how diseased, how full of pain, how old, how wretched, how, seemingly, useless, he clings to life, and none but the mighty and masterful one, Death, will he permit to overcome him. The value God puts on human life is shown in the preservation arrangements He has made for its preservation. of Life. What a wonderful restorative power or vitality He Relations between man has put into our frames, so that men can be recovered from long and perilous diseases, and brought up from the very borders of the grave. Considering the dangers to which we are constantly exposed, the poisons of the air we breathe, and of the food we eat, and remembering the extreme delicacy of the organs within us, we cannot but be impressed with the Divine care of life in giving to us this restorative force. The sanctity of life is also seen in the relation and beast. settled between man and the beasts,-" And the fear of you, and dread of you, shall be on every beast of the earth." But for this man's life would have been placed in constant peril; the instinct of the |