Ararat is celebrated as the resting-place of Noah's ark after the Deluge, and as the spot whence the descendants of Noah peopled the earth. It rises on the Persian frontier, on a large plain, detached, as it were, from the other mountains of Armenia, which make a long chain. It consists, properly speaking, of two hills--the highest of which, where the ark is said to have rested,[18] is, according to Parrot, 2,700 toises, or 17,718 feet above the level of the ocean.[19] The summit is covered with perpetual snow; the lower parts are composed of a deep, moving sand; and one side presents a vast chasm tinged with smoke, from which flames have been known to issue. [18] The precise spot is controverted, as will be seen in an extract from the ingenious work on Scriptural Antiquities, quoted in vol. xix. of _the Mirror_, p. 382; where are notices of the mountain by Morier and Sir Robert Ker Porter. The latter describes Ararat as divided, by a chasm of about seven miles wide, into two distinct peaks, and is of opinion that the ark finally rested in this chasm. [19] Edin. New Phil. Journ. By Professor Jameson. No. 23, p. 156.--Note to a paper by Humboldt, on the Mountain Chains and Volcanoes of Central Asia. Ararat is referred to in Genesis, viii. 4. Its distance and bearing from Jerusalem, 650, N.E.b.N.; Lat. North, 39.40. Long. East, 43.50. Country, Erivan; Province, Mahou.--_From the General Index to the Biblical Family Cabinet Atlas._ [Illustration: _Mount Ararat, from a drawing, by Sir Robert Ker Porter._] Perhaps the most recent visit to this wonder of the East will be found described in Mr. J.H. Stocqueler's Journal of _Fifteen Months' Pilgrimage through untrodden Tracts of Khuzistan and Persia_, in 1831 and 1832:--