Dr. Brinton also speaks of the Mexican tradition.[27:5] They had not only the story of sending out the bird, but related that the ark landed on a mountain. The tradition of a deluge was also found among the Brazilians, and among many Indian tribes.[27:6] The mountain upon which the ark is supposed to have rested, was pointed to by the residents in nearly every quarter of the globe. The mountain-chain of Ararat was considered to be—by the Chaldeans and Hebrews—the place where the ark landed. The Greeks pointed to Mount Parnassus; the Hindoos to the Himalayas; and in Armenia numberless heights were pointed out with becoming reverence, as those on which the few survivors of the dreadful scenes of the deluge were preserved. On the Red River (in America), near the village of the Caddoes, there was an eminence to which the Indian tribes for a great distance around paid devout homage. The Cerro Naztarny on the Rio Grande, the peak of Old Zuni in New Mexico, that of Colhuacan on the Pacific coast, Mount Apoala in Upper Mixteca, and Mount Neba in the province of Guaymi, are some of many elevations asserted by the neighboring nations to have been places of refuge for their ancestors when the fountains of the great deep broke forth.
The question now may naturally be asked, How could such a story have originated unless there was some foundation for it?
In answer to this question we will say that we do not think such a story could have originated without some foundation for it, and that most, if not all, legends, have a basis of truth underlying the fabulous, although not always discernible. This story may have an astronomical basis, as some suppose,[28:1] or it may not. At any rate, it would be very easy to transmit by memory the fact of the sinking of an island, or that of an earthquake, or a great flood, caused by overflows of rivers, &c., which, in the course of time, would be added to, and enlarged upon, and, in this way, made into quite a lengthy tale. According to one of the most ancient accounts of the deluge, we are told that at that time "the forest trees were dashed against each other;" "the mountains were involved with smoke and flame;" that there was "fire, and smoke, and wind, which ascended in thick clouds replete with lightning." "The roaring of the ocean, whilst violently agitated with the whirling of the mountains, was like the bellowing of a mighty cloud, &c."[28:2]
A violent earthquake, with eruptions from volcanic mountains, and the sinking of land into the sea, would evidently produce such a scene as this. We know that at one period in the earth's history, such scenes must have been of frequent occurrence. The science of geology demonstrates this fact to us. Local deluges were of frequent occurrence, and that some persons may have been saved on one, or perhaps many, such occasions, by means of a raft or boat, and that they may have sought refuge on an eminence, or mountain, does not seem at all improbable.
During the Champlain period in the history of the world—which came after the Glacial period—the climate became warmer, the continents sank, and there were, consequently, continued local floods which must have destroyed considerable animal life, including man. The foundation of the deluge myth may have been laid at this time.
Some may suppose that this is dating the history of man too far back, making his history too remote; but such is not the case. There is every reason to believe that man existed for ages before the Glacial epoch. It must not be supposed that we have yet found remains of the earliest human beings; there is evidence, however, that man existed during the Pliocene, if not during the Miocene periods, when hoofed quadrupeds, and Proboscidians abounded, human remains and implements having been found mingled with remains of these animals.[29:1]
Charles Darwin believed that the animal called man, might have been properly called by that name at an epoch as remote as the Eocene period.[29:2] Man had probably lost his hairy covering by that time, and had begun to look human.
Prof. Draper, speaking of the antiquity of man, says:
"So far as investigations have gone, they indisputably refer the existence of man to a date remote from us by many hundreds of thousands of years," and that, "it is difficult to assign a shorter date from the last glaciation of Europe than a quarter of a million of years, and human existence antedates that."[29:3]