midday
The feelings of some were deeply stirred when they learned that they were now crossing the lower end of Palestine , and that the scenes of so many incidents in the history of Abraham , Moses , and Joshua lay buried beneath the blue water , whose almost motionless surface was marked with a broad trail of foaming bubbles in the wake of the immense vessel . Cosmo greatly regretted the absence of the submersible when they were picking their way over this perilous region , but they encountered no real difficulty , and at length found , by celestial observations , that they were beyond all dangers and safely arrived over the deeply submerged desert . They kept on for several days toward the rising sun , and then Captain Arms announced that the observations showed that they were over the site of Babylon . This happened just at the time of the midday dinner , and over the dessert Cosmo seized the opportunity to make a little speech , which could be heard by all in the saloon . `` We are now arrived , '' he said , `` over the very spot where the descendants of Noah are said to have erected a tower , known as the Tower of Babel , and which they intended to build so high that it would afford a secure refuge in case there should be another deluge . `` How vain were such expectations , if they were ever entertained , is sufficiently shown by the fact that , at this moment , the water rolls more than three thousand feet deep over the place where they put their tower , and before the present deluge is over it will be thirty thousand feet deep . `` More than half a mile beneath our feet lie the broad plains of Chaldea , where tradition asserts that the study of astronomy began .