Note 10 — Chapter IV · DOWN THE TIGRIS TO MOSUL

There is practically no doubt that the story of the Ark’s journey is as inaccurate as that of Jonah and some other incomprehensible narratives of the Jewish chronicles. Sir William Willcocks, whose work in investigation of ancient waterways in the Euphrates valley will soon achieve fame, has practically proved that Noah was flooded out in an exceptional season that inundated the whole of the flat plains of the lower Euphrates and Tigris, a district now flooded regularly every year. The Ararat upon which he landed was Ur of the Chaldees, situate upon a mound which, above the waste of water—which in flooded seasons looks like an illimitable ocean—would have appeared a considerable eminence. Furthermore, and completely refuting the possibility of a journey to Ararat, is the fact that the strong prevailing wind which blows, has blown for thousands of years during springtime from a northerly direction, would have kept Noah south, even if we can disregard the fact of the rush of water southwards to the Persian Gulf, to say nothing of all the high mountains of Kurdistan and Armenia between Chaldea and Ararat.