The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1892-09-16
HE FOUND THE ARK.

San Francisco the other day on the
steamer China, says he has seen Noah's
Ark. AS he recounted he has travelled,
preaching and exploring in various
lands, 25O,0O0 miles. He set out from
his home in Jerusalem seven years ago,
and it will be five years yet, he says, be-
fore he gets back. In the five years he
will travel 1901 900 miles more, making
total in the twelve years of 400, 900 miles,
or a distance of more than 10 times
around the earth. In addition to the
Office held by him, as indicated by his
degrees, he is Pontifical Delegate General
of Nedabor and ex-Grand Secretary of
the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Persia
and India. He was educated at Babylon,
previous to which he spent much of his
time at Jerusalem and Bagdad.
One of the things he told about was
his explorations in the Mountains of the
Moon, in the east of Central Africa,
while trying to find the source OF the
Nile, in which he found gold so plentiful
that the mountains were fairly ribbed
with it, and powders along the way
sparkled with the yellow metal. The
other was the discovery of the sources
of the Tigres and Euphrates in Mount
Ararat in Armenia, and tremendous
Ararat, which he regards at the veritable
ark of Noah
''In this journey to the undiscovered
and hitherto unexplored Mountains of
the Moon" said he, II set out from
Alexandria and penetrated 1000 miles in
the interior went by way of Cairo,
thence down to Cedar, and thence to
Khartoum, in the Valley of the Nile.
From thence proceeded to Timbuctoo,
in the south of the great Sahara Tim
buctoo now has between 10000 and
10000 people. 1t is very ancient and
very famous, vying with Morocco,
Algiers and Tripoli in commercial trade.
Great caravans of horses, camels and
elephants ply between all these cities.
had travelling with me and composing
the rest of my party six Abyssinlans,
who were of the Greek orthodox faith.
We moved forward in all kinds of ways,
sometimes on donkeys, again on camels
and in the high mountains on foot. 1t
took us between five and six months to
complete our explorations. All this
time, whenever we were among any
people, no matter how barbarous, l
preached to them.
"About 200 miles over the desert from
TimbuctOo we began to get into the gold
bearing mountains. The richness of the
mountains increased as we advanced
until the rocks were scanned with gold.
''From here 1 still extended my re-
searches, preaching all the time when L
could as 1 went, had in view the search
ing of the sources of the two great
rivers of the Bible-the Tigris and
Euphrates, of Mesopotamia. Gaining
facts, as 1 am, for great ecclesiastical
history of the Eastern Church through
out the world, and constantly visiting
ancient museums, universities and every
where where manuscripts and tablets
could be found. l thought it was i'm
portant to search for myself for the
sources of those great rivers. found
them after great difficulty, and in doing
this l climbed almost to the top of the
two horns of Mount Ararat, in Armenia.
Up towards the domes of Mount Ararat
is fiat valley, large in area, which may
be designated plain. 1t is nearly 2OOO
feet above the sea. About 200 feet above
the plain found the sources of those
two great rivers. They are very close
together. The water was extremely cold
and clear.
"Then we proceeded to ascend to the
top of Mount Ararat. We first chose
Jn6 Smaller nOTn. Ills 10 dDOuO lOsOOO
feet high, while the other is, as nearly as
it is now ascertained, about $1,000 feet
in altitude. We succeeded in getting up
about ID, 900 feet. There was perpetual
snow there, and it lay very deep. A
violent wind was blowing, and the
mountain was so precipitous that we
could not go farther. Accordingly, we
retraced our steps, and when we got
down to point from which we could
cross over to the other mountain we
went over to it and began climbing. We
reached the altitude of 14,000 or 10, 900
feet. The snow here also was very deep.
We walked on till it was impossible to
90 any farther. We walked for hours
and hours on the snow, and finally came
down 1000 or 5000 feet
at was in the month of March that
we made up our minds that it would DE
impossible to reach the top in such
weather. We must wait till the snow,
or great deal of it at least, melted. We
accordingly went still further below, and
remained till April. Then we were
abundantly paid for all our labor, for we
discovered, what feel sure was the ark,
the actual work of Noah. l discovered
it myself, being the first to see it, saw
it through a field glass at first, though
we got so close to it that it was visible
to the eye alone. We had reached a
blight over the green grass, and at length
| in deep snow and over glaciers of prob
| ably 10000 or 1880 feet, and within
Is, 600 or 1000 feet of the top, great
object came into view through the glass.
"The bow and stern were clearly in
view, but the centre of it was buried in
snow and one side of 1t had fallen down
and was decayed. 1t stood more thar
one hundred feet high and was more
than three hundred yards long. The
wood seemed very peculiar. twas dark
reddish, almost irOn-colored, and seemed
very thick saw it perfectly, especially
the rear part. 1t is between five and six
thousand years old. Would the wood
last for that timer Oh, yes. 1t would
not were it not for the snow, but that
has preserved it. Were it not for that
constructed even of hardwood as it is, il
would have been impossible to last over
two OF three thousand years. AS tbs, il
will be preserved for ages and ages, per.
haps twenty or thirty thousand years.
"Never before have 1 told of the dis
covery for publication" said he, land l
never have told it to anybody, except to
a few people in India. / will tell you
why did not announce it before. 1t IL
because some of the people 1 told it tC
laughed and would not believe it. There
fore said l will not tell it, unless they
ask me, but where they do will tell the
entire story. Meantime, trust to the
future to verify what have seen. II