course. Rich however, says, that at Hillah, the maximum velocity of the Euphrates is seven miles an hour; and Ainsworth reports that the rapidity of the stream varies in different places. He says, in the depressions of the alluvial plain, it is often not a mile an hour, but over the high ground, as at Kalat Gerah, it runs nearly three miles an hour; that at Hillah, where the stream is confined, it flows four knots through the bridge, and that the Upper Euphrates averages from three to four miles. The Euphrates flowing, in the lower portion of its course, through a vast plain between low banks, the periodical increase of its waters causes it to overflow, like the Nile, sometimes inundating the country to a great extent, and leaving extensive lakes and marshes in its neighbourhood, after the river has retired to its channel. The rise of the Euphrates begins in March, and continues till the commencement of June, at which time, there is nowhere less than from twelve to sixteen feet depth of water. In the low season, it is generally from six to ten feet; but in some places, even at this season, it is eighteen feet. In describing the average depth, the natives are accustomed to say, that is equal to the height of two men. The water is lowest in November and the three succeeding months; but sometimes there is a slight increase in January. Ainsworth, in describing the alluvial soil, which the Euphrates, like the Nile, brings down in its course, says: "The period at which the waters of Euphrates are most loaded with mud, are in the first floods of January; the gradual melting of the snows in early summer, which preserve the high level of the waters, do not, at the same time, contribute much sedimentary matter. From numerous experiments made at Bir, in December and January, 1836, I found the maximum of sediment mechanically suspended in the waters, to be equal to 1-80th part of the bulk of the fluid, or every cubic inch of water contained 1-80th part of its bulk of suspended matters; and from similar experiments, instituted in the month of October of the same year, at the issue of the waters from the Lemlun Marshes, I only obtained a maximum of 1-200th part of a cubic inch of water (mean temp. 740.) The sediments of the river Euphrates, which are not deposited in the upper part of the river's course, are finally deposited in the Lemlun Marshes. In navigating the river in May, 1836, the water flowing into the marshes was coloured deeply by mud, but left the marshes in a state of comparative purity, and this is equally the case in the Chaldean Marshes, below Orun el Bak, the "Mother of Musquitoes." According to Pliny, the ancient method of navigating the Euphrates was very remarkable. The vessels used were round, without distinction of head or stern, and little better than wicker baskets coated over with hides, which were guided along with oars or paddles. These vessels were of different sizes, and some of them capable of carrying burdens of palm wine or other merchandize, to the weight of 5,000 talents, (equal, according to Bishop Cumberland's calculation, to about sixty-two tons English,) having, according to their size, beasts of burden on board. When the vessels had thus fallen down the river to Babylon, the crew unloaded their cargo, and sold their vessel, but kept the hides, and, loading their beasts with them, returned home by land, the force of the stream preventing their backward course by water: steam navigation alone can overcome this disadvantage. THE PRODUCTIONS OF BABYLONIA. Herodotus declares that, of all the countries he had visited, none was so suitable as Babylonia for cultivation; and he says that the return was generally two and sometimes three hundred fold, in which testimony Strabo, the first of ancient geographers, agrees. This fertility arose from the system of irrigation before described, as well as from the richness of the alluvial soil of the plain and the salubrity of the climate. It does not appear, however, that the plains of Babylonia abounded in the various luxuries of life. The contrary, indeed, appears from the songs of the captive Hebrews, while sitting on the margin of its waters. This song shows how acutely they regretted their exile from their own pleasant land, the land of the olive and vine, (which Babylonia is not, in the strict sense of the word,) and their own possessions and high enjoyments there. See Psa. cxxxvii. The productions for which Babylonia was chiefly celebrated were the date palm, which flourished naturally through the breadth of the plain, and which afforded the Babylonians meat, wine, and honey; sesame, which affords them oil instead of the olive; barley, millet, and wheat. For grain, it exceeded other land. The millet and the sesame, says Herodotus, grew up as trees, and the leaves of the barley and wheat were four fingers broad. Babylonia, indeed, for vegetable productions, in ancient times, might be justly compared every with Egypt. But it is not so now. According to the prediction of the prophet, the sower is cut off from Babylon, and a drought is upon her waters, and they are dried up, Jer. 1. 16, 38. All is now an arid desert, offering only some few patches of cultivation near the few settlements which it contains. The grove trees, so numerous, beautiful and flourishing, in the days of Xenophon and Ammianus Marcellinus, have disappeared with the villages, and are only to be found in and about the principal towns, a few instances excepted, where they mark the site of a place not long deserted. In the city of Babylon itself, which, according to ancient historians, contained within the walls much spare ground that was cultivated and ploughed for corn, there are now no pastures: thus literally fulfilling prophecy, which saith: "Neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; Neither shall the shepherds make their fold there."-Isa. xiii. 20. The soil of Irak Arabi, which, as the reader has seen in a former page, nearly corresponds to ancient Babylonia, may in general be characterized as a sandy clay, covered with the rubbish of ruined towns and canals. The banks of the Euphrates and Shat-al-Hie are not so perfectly desolate as those of the Tigris; but it is only near rivers and canals that we may expect any redeeming features in the landscape. On the Euphrates, the territory of the Khezail Arabs contains rich pastures and good cultivation, and many villages. But this territory is very limited, and all the remaining portion of the plain bears its testimony to the truth of Holy Writ, which "Behold, the hindermost of the nations shall be A wilderness, a dry land, and a desert."-Jer. i. 12. The banks of the rivers, and particularly the Tigris, are skirted to a great extent with the tamarisk shrub, which in some places attains the height of twenty or twenty-five feet. The common tamarisk of the country, the Athleh or Alte, of Sonini, is the Tamarisk Orientalis of Forskal. The solitary tree of a species which, Heeren says, is altogether strange to this country, and which Rich calls Lignum Vitæ, found growing upon the ruins of the Kasr at Babylon, and which has been supposed to be a last remnant or offspring of the sloping or hanging gardens, that appeared to Quintus Curtius like a forest, is also a tamarisk, but it differs from the Athleh in size. This tree possesses scaly branches and long slender petioles, with few leaves; the appearance, however, is supposed by some to have been produced by a scanty supply of water and great age, from whence they argue that it may belong to the common species. Curtius says this tree was eight cubits, near fifteen feet in girth. The tree bears every mark of antiquity in appearance, situation, and tradition. By the Arabs it is regarded as sacred, from a tradition that it was preserved by the Almighty from the earliest times, to be a refuge in after ages for the khalif Ali, who, fainting from fatigue at the battle of Killah, reposed in security beneath its shade. It must have been more than 1,000 years old at the reputed time of the engagement, so that it may be supposed a germ from the royal gardens at Babylon. The willow and the poplar appear in Babylonia, but they rather resemble shrubs than trees, and are more rare than the former plants. The willow was doubtless more abundant on the banks of the Euphrates, in ancient times; for the Hebrews, in their captivity, "High on the willows, all untuned, unstrung, Their harps suspended." Isaiah speaks of Babylonia as "The brook of the willows," or, as Prideaux and Bochart would render it, "The valley of the willows," Isa. xv. 7. Ainsworth says, however, that the weeping willow, Salix Babylonica, is not met with in Babylonia, and that a poplar, Gharab, with lanceolate and cordate leaves on separate parts of the same branch, has been mistaken for a willow. Tradition states that the castor oil plant once grew luxuriantly in the plains of Babylonia, but there is only one specimen existing, and that grows as a tree on the site of ancient Ctesiphon. The Asclepias Syriaca is tall and abundant in some places, and when young, though deemed by us poison, it is eaten by the Arabs. The Carob plant sometimes attains the height of six or seven feet. Camel-thorn is very common and the Arabs express a sweet juice from it, and eat the leaves as we do spinach. Among other plants which grow in this desolate region, are a rare species of rue, colacynth, chenopodium, macronatum; a beautiful species of mesembrianthemum, carex, alopecarus, centaurea, lithospermum, heliotrope, lycium, and a beautiful twining species of solanum. The marshes near the Tigris are thickly covered with the blossoms of the white floating crowfoot. Of the cultivated fruit trees, near the towns, the date palm is the most important, a 1 it contributes largely to the subsistence of the population. Grapes, figs, pomegranates, quinces, etc., are good; but apples, pears, oranges, etc,, are of inferior size and quality. Melons, cucumbers, onions, and other plants of this family are abundant and excellent. But these only grow, as stated before, in certain parts of the district. The plains of Babylonia, for the most part are characterized, according to the sure word of prophecy, by desolation, as the reader will discover more at large in the ensuing pages. CLIMATE. Babylonia, generally speaking, enjoys a salubrious and wholesome air, though at certain seasons, no air can be more dangerous. Plutarch relates, that the heats were so extraordinary, that the rich were accustomed to sleep in cisterns of water. The country is exposed to a pestilential wind, called the Samiel. This wind is popularly considered to prevail during forty days, but its actual duration is often twice as long. During this period, it commonly rises about noon, or somewhat earlier, and continues until three or four o'clock in the afternoon. It is felt like a fiery breeze which has passed over the mouth of a lime-kiln. It seldom or never rains in Babylonia, during the space of eight months; and it has been known not to rain for two years and a half. Rauwolf says, the inhabitants reckon, that if it rains two or three times in the year, it is sufficient for their purpose. An idea may be gathered of the temperature of the air of the plains of Babylonia from the following table, which was taken at Bagdad, situated in its vicinity, in the years 1830 and 1831. Room. Open Shade. Sun. Lowest. Highest. Lowest. Highest. Lowest. Highest. 1830. April May June O O 87 89 93 70 48 55 59 |