| XXX | (424) | XXX |
ARK (42 4 ) ARK others lox. See. Pelletier .prefers cedar, on account of for the birds, with Noah and his family ; each ftory its incorruptibility, and the great plenty of it in Alia; being fubdivided into different apartments, ftalls, fac. whence Herodotus and Theophraftus relate, that the Though Jofephus, Philo, and other commentators, add kings of Egypt and Syria built whole fleets thereof, a kind of fourth ftory under all the reft ; being, as it inftead of deal. were, the hold of the veffel, to contain the ballaft, and The learned .Mr Fuller in his Mifcellanies, has ob- receive the filth and faeces of fo many animals : But ferved, that the wood whereof the ark was built, was F. Calmet thinks, that what is here reckoned a ftory, nothing elfe but that which the Greek call xoTrag/crcros, was no more than what is called the keel of fltips, and or the cyprefs-tree ; for, taking away the termination, ferved only for a confervatory of frelh water. Drexekupar and gopher differ very little in found. This lius makes three hundred apartments. F. Fournier, obfervation the great Bochart has confirmed, and fliewn three hundred and thirty-three; the anonymous author very plainly that no country abounds fo much with of the Queftions on Genefis, four hundred; Buteo, this wood as that part of Affyria which Kes about Ba- Temporarius, Arias Montanus, Hoftus, Wilkins, bylon. Lamy, and others, fuppofe a's many partitions as there' In what place Noah built and finilhed his ark is no lefs were different forts of animals. Pelletier makes only made a matter of difputa:tion. But the moll probable fev.enty-two, viz. thirty-fix for the birds, -and as opinion is, that it was built in Chaldasa, in the terri- many for the beafts ; his reafon is, that if we fuptories of Babylon, where there was fo great a quanti- pofe a greater number, as 333, or 400, each of the ty of cyprefs in the groves and gardens in Alexander’s eight perfons in the ark muft have had thirty-feven, time, that that prince built a whole fleet out of it, for forty-one, or fifty ftalls to attend and cleanfe daily, want of timber. And this conjefture is confirmed by which he thinks impofiible to have been done. But it the Chaldean tradition, which makes Xithurus (another is obferved, that there is not much in this; to diminame for Noah) fet fail from that country. ni(h the number of ftalls without a diminution of aniThe dimenfions of the ark, as given by Mofes, are mals is vain; it being perhaps more difficult to take 300 cubits in length, 50 in breadth, and 30 in height, care of three hundred animals in feventy-two ftalls, which fome have thought too fcanty, confidering the than in three hundred. As to the number of animals number of things it was to contain ; and hence an ar- chntained in the ark, Buteo computes that it could gument has been drawn againft the authority of the re- not be equal to five hundred horfes ; he even reduces lation. To folve this difficulty many of the ancient the whole to the dimenfions of fifty-fix pair of oxen. fathers, and the modern critics, have been put to ve- F. Lamy enlarges it to fixty.-four pair of oxen, or an ry miferable fliifts: But Buteo and Kircher have proved hundred and twenty-eight oxen ; fo that fuppofing one geometrically, that, taking the common cubit of a ox equal to two horfes, if the ark had room for two foot and a half, the ark was abundantly fufficient for hundred and fifty-fix horfes, there muft have been all the animals fuppofed to be lodged in it. Snellius roorrf for all the animals. But the fame author decomputes the ark to have been above half an acre in monftrates, that one floor of it would fuffice for five area, and father Lamy fhews, that it was no feet hundred horfes, allowing nine fquare feet to a horfe. longer than the church of St Mary at Paris, and 64 As to the food in the fecond ftory, it is obferved by feet narrower; and if fo, it mull have been longer than Buteo from Columella, that thirty or forty pounds of St Paul’s church in London, from weft to eaft; and hay ordinalily fuffices for an ox a day, and that a fobroader than that church is high in the infide, and 54 lid cubit of hay, as ufually preffed down in our hayfeet* of our meafure in height; and Dr Arbuthnot ricks, weighs about forty pounds; fo that a fquare cubit of hay is more than enough for one ox . in one computes it to have been 81062 tuns. The things contained in it were, befides eight per- day. Now it appears that the fecond ftory contained fons of Noah’s family, one pair of every fpecies of un- 150,000 folid cubits, which divided between two clean animals, and feven pair of every fpecies of clean hundred and fix oxen, will afford each more hay by animals, with provilions for them all during the whole two thirds, than he can eat in a year. Biftiop Wilyear. The former appears, at firft view, almoft in- kins computes all the carnivorous animals, equivalent, finite; but if we come to a calculation, the number of as to the bulk of their bodies, and their food, to twenfpecies of animals will be found much lefs than is ge- ty-feven wolves; and all the reft to two hundred and nerally imagined, not amounting to an hundred fpecies eighty beeves. For the former he allows 1825 of quadrupeds, nor to two hundred of birds ; out of fheep, and for the latter, 109,500 cubits of hay, all which, in this cafe, are excepted fuch animals as can live which will be eafily contained in the two firft ftories, in the water. Zoologifts ufually reckon but an hundred and a deal of room to fpare. As to the third ftory, and feventy fpecies in all; andbilhop Wilkins Ihews that no body doubts*of its beipg fufficient for the fowls; only feventy-two of the q uadruped kind needed a place with Noah, Jiis fons, and daughters. .Upon the whole, the learned bifhop remarks, that of the two, it appears in the ark. By the defeription Mofes gives of the ark, it ap- much more difficult to afftgn a number and bulk of pears to have been divided into three ftories, each neceffary things to anfwer ^ the capacity of the ark, ten cubits, or fifteen feet, high ; and it is agreed than to find fufficient room for the feveral fpecies of anion, as moft probable, that the loweft ftory was for mals already known to have been there. 1 his Ee at,the beafts, the middle for the food, and the upper tributes to the imperfe&ion of our lift of animals, fpeciallye- ‘
