ALLEGED DISCOVERY OF NOAH’S ARK.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1105, 15 May 1883, Page 3

ALLEGED DISCOVERY OF NOAH’S ARK.

A contributor to the Auckland Herald of the 31st March' writes , In last Wednesday’s Herald a Reuter s London telegram announced that 11 intelligence is to hand that a series of avalanches have occured at Mount Ararat, in Armenia. A number of villages have been completely destroyed, and hundreds of people have bee a killed.” It is surprising that no reference was made to a remarkable alleged discovery in connection with one of these storms of avalanches, and which is referred in to the following extract from the Levant Herald, just received, being nothing less than that of the suppose 1 remains of Noah’s 1 Ark. Our contemporary says We have received from our correspondent at Trebizond intelligence of the return of the Commissioners appointed by the Turkish Government to inquire into the reported destruction of Moshui, Ashak, and Bayazid by avalanches, and to render relief to the distressed villagers, who had suffered so severely from the unusual inclemency of the season. They found the destruction to have not been exaggerated, and the distress very great. But the expedition was fortunate in making a discovery that cannot fail to be of the deepest interest to the whole civilised world, for amid the fastnesses of the glens of Mount Ararat they came upon a gigantic-structure of some very dark wood, imbedded at the foot of one of the glaciers, with one end protruding, and which they believed to bo none other than the old Aik in which Noah, with his family, navigated the waters of the deluge. The place whore

the discovery was made is about five day’s journey from Trebizond, in the department. of Yan, in Armenia, and about four leagues from the Persian frontier. The glen is one of the sources of a tributary of the River Aras, which flows into the Caspian. The villagers of Bayazid, which is situated about a league off, had seen this strange object for nearly six years, but were deterred by a strong superstitious fear from approaching it, as there was a rumor very generally believed that strange voices were within it, and it is said that some young men more daring than the others who had approached had seen a spirit of fierce aspect gazing out of a hole or door in (he upper portion of the structure. Nothing deterred by fears of the villagers, the Commissioners, accompanied by their personal attendants, proceeded to examine it; the villagers positively refused to approach even the neighborhood of the glacier in which it was imbedded. The way led through a dense forest, and the travellers were obliged to follow the course of the stream, which was intenselycold, being fromtlhe melting glacier. After a toilsome journey of three or four hours, during which they incurred considerable danger from the masses of snow impending from the heights above, they were rewarded by the sight of a huge dark mass projecting 20ft or 30ft from the glacier, on the left-hand side of the ravine. They found that it was formed of a wood not grown in these elevated districts nor nearer than in the low hot valleys of the Euphrates, where it is known by the natives as “izim,” said to be the ancient gopher wood of Scripture. It was in a good state of preservation, being painted or stained on the outside with a dark brown pigment, and constructed of great strength. It was a good deal broken at the angles, from being subject to somewhat rough usuage by the moraines dining the slow descent of the glacier from the lofty peaks towering away beyond the head of the valley to a height of over 17,000 feet—a process which, considering the nature of the country and the slow pace at which these snow rivers travel, especially in the higher altitudes, must have required thousands of years. The projecting portion seemed to be about 40ft or 50ft in height, but to what length it penetrated into the glacier they cannot form an estimate. Effecting an entrance through one of the broken corners, the explorers found it filled for the greater part with ice, the interior being partitioned off into compartments of about 12ft or 15ft high, inio only three of which they were able to make their way, owing to the mass of frozen substance with which these are filled and also deterred by the fears of the structure collapsing with its superincumbent and overhanging mass of the huge glacier. The Commissioners (one of whom is an Englishman—Captain Gascoyne —formerly attached to the British Embassy in this city, and a well known scientific investigatoi) are fully confident that it is the Ark of Noan, and they support the position by maintaining that having been enveloped in snow and frozen, it has been kept in a state of perfect preservation; while slowly, during the silent lapse of 4,000 or 5,000 years, creeping down moment after moment into the valley below, there to appear in these latter ages to discomfit the scoffer and confirm the sine words of revelation. The Commissioners had already reported the discovery to His Majesty, and at the instance of the German Ambassador prompt steps had been taken to prevent from destruction, and to preserve a relic, so interesting to the whole world.