Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1892-05-12
SATURDAY, May z.
THE STORY OF THE ARK.
Figures showing Plenty of Room for al
the Animals.

Figures Showing Plenty of Room for all
the Animals.
OF late. in circle where science is held
as the supreme test. and nothing is to be
accepted that cannot be demonstrated
clearly, it has been asserted that the story
of the ark is positively proved to be a
fable, myth, legend, by the fact that it
would be an absolute i'm possibility to place
two of every species of known land animals
In the space of the ark. This appears to
some young persons a conclusive proof,
coming from scientific source. says How
ard Osgood in Sunday School Times. But
as it is simple question of the multiplica-
ton table there is no science in all this
positive proof as a candid infd2! in
high authority in natural science declares
The matter is so simple that even an out
slider, like myself, may state it. The mar.
rative of the making of the ark Is: This
is how thou shalt make it: the length of
the ark 300 cubits, the breadth of it fifty
cubits, and the height of it twenty cubits
The length of the cubit has been settled
by the comparison OF nuG.erous Egyptian
Babylonian and other cubits Of earliest
tunes, by Oppert, Lepsius, Flinders, Petrie
and others, and especially the conclusive
work of Lahmann. 1t was bptwf en- nine
teen and twenty inches; but, in order to
be on the entirely safe side, we will take
it to be only eighteen inches Then the
surface of one deck of the ark would be
$50 multiplied by Is. equals SO $50 :qdare
feet. Naturalists differ very largely as to
the classification Of species. the maj ority
estimating from 200 to 800 species, but
we will take the extreme estimate by a
high authority, Wallace. in his ''Distrib-
ution of Animals" New York, 1879, who
gives 2,4l5- that is. 290 species above
the size of the sheep, 757 from the sheep
to the rats, and 1859 of the rats, bats and
shrews. Then with two of each species,
2415 multiplied by two equals 1880, and
with seven Of each of the species of clean
animals, seventy, We would have as the
1900, to be placed in the ark In order to
must ascertain the average size of these
24l5 species. There Is no sort of difficulty
in this, since the measurements of the
species are as well known and familiar TO
paturalists as the species themselves. Bat,
lest | may seem 10 venture upon ground
that is beyond me, | have the very high
in the statement that the average size of
all land mammalia would be about that of
the gray fox, OF the common house cat.
the special works giving the size of AMI
mails The ocean steamers carrying cattle
most carefully from America to Scotland,
we allow one-fourth of that space, FIVE
F1o4 chaI ba
a uperabundance Of room; then 1900 null
surface and would be ample to contain all
the known species of animals OF the high
est estimate OF their number. We have
seen that the deck of the ark contained 49,
$50 square feet; 80, $50 minus by 24,5OO
equals $3.50 All the species, then, could
be placed on the deck of the ark, and still
there would be one-third 123118s multiplied
by Isl of that deck vacant. Wallace esti-
lizards, l, 252; of insects (roughly), 100,
of all these species, they could easily be
placed on the $3.50 square feet not occu-
pied by the mammalia. If the ark had
only one deck, two of each known species
of land mammalia, birds, reptiles. lizards
and insects, could lind abundant room
there. But if we follow the majority of
naturalists, and take above their estimate
l, 100 as the number Of species, then l, zoe
multiplied By equals 3, 400, plus 70 equals
8, 470 multiplied by 5 equals 1880 square
feet. As the deck contained %, $50 square
feet, then two OF each species of all the
mammalia would find abundant room in
one-half of the deck and six feet additional
leaving the remainder nearly onc-half
(219x75) for the birds, reptiles, lizards,
Insects. Leaving the ark, it is plain that
any of the great ocean steamers plying
between New York and Liverpool, could
place, with abundant room, two OF each
known species of land mammalia and
birds, reptiles, ETC., on one of their decks.
These facts are so well known, and so easy
TO learn if one does not know them, that
we ask what claim has man to scientific
knowledge or to scientific spirit, who
makes the statement that the scientific
knowledge of the species of animals is a
conclusive proof that they could not have
been placed in the ark, and hence the mar
ratlve of the ark is mere myth2 Only
one deck of the ark has been spoken of, to
show its ample space for all the known
species. But no one who has studied the
subject supposes that the ark had only one
deck. The ark is said to have had rooms
(narg., nests il it, and CLOVER, second
and third stories" From this it is con-
Guided that the ark had three decks, for,
as every waterman knows, hatboat forty
five feet deep is an utter absurdity and
lmpossibility. Retaining the length
breadth and d pth given for the ark it
must have been in the shape of ship, as
Napier, in his Manufacturing Ark in
Early Times" has shown. The deck of
the ark, then would have been less than
80 $50 square fee, but not enough less to
have hindered abundant room to all the
animals. There would have been ample
room for the animals, for food, for year
ard for Noah and his family.
There are enough questions about the
Bible which our ignorance, or the neees-
sary limits of our thinking or prejudice
prevents our solving, but tne question
whether all the species of land mammals,
birds, etc.. could he placed in a certain
number of square feet is so simple that It
is an arithmetic ard not a scientific pro-
blem.
It hows Him How to Feed Himself