lately was doubted; but this doubt arose solely from our ignorance of the coast. It is now called Taktalu, and is in the vicinity of Deliktash, about five miles from the shore. A recent traveller examined the whole of this coast, and ascended its summit, which he states to be elevated 7,800 feet above the sea. The mountain emits a constant and brilliant flame during the night, which consists of ignited hydrogen gas. The flame is most brilliant during the time of heavy rains, or previous to their approach; a phenomenon resembling the Pictra Mala of the Apennines. This flaming mountain (as physical phenomena were generally in former times ascribed to preternatural causes) has been converted by the ancient poets, Homer, Hesiod, Lucretius, and Virgil, into a monster with the head of a lion, the body of a goat, and the tail of a serpent, which was vanquished by the famous Bellerophon and his steed Pegasus. Thus Homer, describing the more than mortal feats required to be performed by him, by his host the king of Lycia, says: 'First, dire Chimæra's conquest was enjoin'd, A mingled monster of no mortal kind; Bochart imagines this triple monster to represent the three deities worshipped by the Solymi, the ancient inhabitants of Lycia. Others say, that it signified the kind of enemies with whom Bellerophon had to contend: the Solymi, Amazons, and the Lycians, adumbrated by the lion, the goat, and the serpent. But this is contradicted by the poet in the lines immediately following the description. They read thus: "This pest he slaughter'd (for he read the skies, This indicates that the conquest of these nations succeeded that of the triple-formed monster, Chimæra. There are others, finally, who conceive that the poetical picture represents the state of the mountain when Bellerophon visited Lycia: namely, that its base was infested with serpents; its middle afforded pasture for goats; and that its summit was inhabited by lions. These they imagine Bellerophon slew, rendering the mountain habitable; whence he was said to destroy the triple monster. That part of Taurus which is above the plain of Tarsus and Adanah, commonly known as the Ramadan Oghlu mountains, is continued by the Dardun Dagh to the Amanus; but the direction of the two chains is different, as is also their structure and geognostic relations. The southern prolongation of Amanus is Rhossus, which terminates in the Jebel Kasserik, above Rhas Khanzir; and Jebel Musah, above Seleucia. The mountain of Taurus, stretching east on Commagena, separates Sophena from Osroene, and then divides itself into three portions. The most northerly and highest are the Niphates, in Acilicene. The central chain comprises the Azarah Dagh, and mountain country round the mines, called Maden Gomush, or Kapan, and Maden Kapur. The most southerly is the antique Masius, and includes the Karadjia Daghli, the Jebel Tur, and Baarem hills, extending to the Jezirah. To the south of these are the Babel and Sinjar ranges of hills, united by the isolated hill of Kuka to the hills of Abdel Hassiz. These various hills are composed of granite, gneiss, mica shist, limestones, diorites, diallage rocks, serpentines, actynolite rock, stea shists, sandstones, feldspatho-pyroxenic rocks, limestones with nummulites, limestones with pectinides and ostracea, fossils, indurated chalk, quartz shist, granular chalk, clay-slate, chlorite-slate, hornblende rock, hornblende shist, gypsum, siliceous limestones, conide limestones, etc. The elevation of the crest of Taurus, viewed as the mean between the height of the culminating points and that of the passes, is, at Maden Gomush, 5,053 feet; at Dawa Boini, 4,453 feet; at Kuhtel, 3,379 feet; at the Gul Dagh, 4,808 feet; Ayeli mountain, 5,650 feet; Seliski, 4,250 feet; the crest of the Kara Bel, 5,790 feet; that of the Chamlu Bel, 5,260 feet; and the Aklo Dagh, 2,900 feet. At the foot of these mountains are valleys or plains variously characterized. Some are composed of the feldspatho-pyroxenic rocks, some of chalk, some of limestone, sandstone marls, mica shist, and gypsum, and some are very fertile. PLAINS. The second district includes all the territory which extends from 37° north lat. to 34°, and comprises the plains of Syria, Mesopotamia, and the country east of the Tigris to the Kurdish mountains. The whole of this country consists of cretaceous and, super-cretaceous deposits, occasionally interrupted by plutonic rocks of the feldspatho-pyroxenic family. The character of these plains varies with the altitude and latitude, as well as with the quality of the soil, and the presence or absence of dewy moisture. The structure of the plains consists of indurated, compact, granular chalks, flints, siliceous sandstone, limestones, gypsum, calcareous gypsum, sands, and sandstones, bitumen, naphtha, sulphur, limestone breccia, red saliferous and gypsiferous sands, cerithia, fresh-water limestones, marls, fossiliferous marls, clays, pebbles, ironstones, soil, etc. The upland of feldspatho-pyroxenic rocks, extending from Jezirah to Tel Sakhan, near Nisibin, is a stony wilderness, amidst which there is very little cultivation. Numerous flocks of sheep and cattle, however, obtain a scanty support here during a large portion of the year, and wolves are very numerous. This plain has a mean elevation of 1,550 feet. The plains of northern Syria, the plains of northern Mesopotamia, from Urfah to Kakkah, and from Nisibin to El Hathr, and the Chaldean plain east of Nineveh, that of Erbil and of Altun Kupri, possess a soil with good agricultural qualities, but barren from want of irrigation. The elevation of these plains averages 1,300 feet. The remaining differences are the comparative fertility of some places, which are exposed to temporary inundations at the heads of rivers or rivulets. These become the permanent abode of agricultural tribes, the seat of cultivation and prosperity, and the resort of the Nomadic Arab and Turkoman, where at certain seasons they lead their flocks. Thus the Shamar Arab tribes frequently pitch their tents, in winter, in the plains of Seleucia, and in the summer overrun the fertile district of El Hathr. VEGETATION. Concerning the natural productions of ancient Assyria very little is known; but as it lay between 33 and 39° N. lat., it must in its happy times have been a land of plenty. We learn this, indeed, from the vaunting speech of Rabshakeh to the Hebrews, when he besieged Jerusalem. “Make an agreement with me by a present, and come out to me: and eat ye every one of his vine, and every one of his fig tree, and drink ye every one the waters of his own cistern; until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards," Isa. xxxvi. 16, 17. See also 2 Kings xviii. 31, 32. In his narrative of the expedition of Julian to Ctesiphon, Gibbon says, that nature had denied to Assyria, the vine, the olive, and the fig tree, the choicest of her gifts. This is not correct; these choicest gifts of nature's bounty are at the present time to be found, both in Assyria and Babylonia, fallen as these countries now are from their pristine glory. Kinnier says, they may be seen almost in every garden. That the Assyrians possessed luxuries in ancient times, may be gathered from the statements of Xenophon. Speaking of the provision villages, he says, "Here we found wine made of the fruit of the palm tree, and also vinegar drawn by boiling from the same fruit. Some of these they dried for sweetmeats. The wine that was made of this fruit was sweet to the taste, but apt to give the headache; here also the soldiers eat for the first time the pith of the palm tree, and many admired both the figure and peculiar sweetness of it. This also occasioned violent headaches." Ammianus and Herodotus bear the same testimony; and that palm wine was very abundant, we may conclude, from the fact that the boats which descended the Tigris from Armenia, some of which were large, had, in the latter historian's days, palm wine for their chief article of com merce. Palm wine is now no longer made in that country, as when the date trees abounded; but Burckhardt, in his travels in Nubia, describes it as made in that country, which may give the reader an idea of what it was, as made in Assyria and Babylonia. He says: "In all the larger villages of Nubia, the use of palm wine is very common, and at Derr a vast deal of spirits is consumed. The wine does not taste amiss; but it is too rich and too thick to be drank with pleasure. When the date fruit has arrived at its full maturity, it is thrown into large earthen boilers, and left to boil without interruption for three or four days. It is then strained, and the clear juice put into earthen jars, which are well shut up, and then buried in the ground, where it ferments. It is left for ten or twelve days under ground; at the expiration of which time it is fit to drink. It keeps a twelvemonth, and then turns sour. The aquavitæ, made from dates, is of very good quality, and keeps for years. The upper classes of people at Derr are every evening intoxicated, either with date wine or spirits, of which large quantities are consumed. They are sold openly. From Siout southward, all through Upper Egypt, date spirits are made, and probably sold; the Pasha receiving a tax on it from the innkeepers. There is also made from the dates a kind of jelly or honey, which serves the rich people for a sweetmeat.' The features of the vegetation of Assyria may be divided into two sections:-1. That of the mountains; and, 2. That of the plains. The most remarkable feature in the vegetation of Taurus is the abundance of trees, shrubs, and plants in the northern, and their comparative fewness in the southern districts. The Masius is woody in parts; such, for instance, are a few districts in the Baarem, and the Jebel Tur, near Nisibin, from whence some have supposed Trajan collected the wood for the construction of his fleet. From the summit of Ayeli, pine and fir forests are first visible in the distance, and they ultimately cover the Kara Bel and the Chamlu Bel, as the latter name indicates. On the contrary, around the Arganah, Maden, Kirtchu, and Gul Dagh hills, no trees are to be seen. The forest trees consist of several variations of the oak; of pine, chesnut, ash, alder tree, hazel, maple trees, etc. Among the useful and cultivated plants of Taurus, are the vine, fig, almond, and olive trees; pears, apples, and apricots also are abundant: and several kinds of wheat are cultivated there. On the flanks of forests, or isolated, are found the carob, medlar, and plum trees; by the banks of streams, the tamarisk, etc.; and in shrubberies and low woodlands, the box, juniper, myrtle, scarlet oak, buckthorn, cypress trees, etc. Heaths are rarely met with; the Erica arborea, however, flourishes near Sis, and the Erica scoparia, in the valley of Antioch. Among the plants which distinguish the plains are the following: wheat, barley, vetches of different kinds, spurge, cucumbers of various kinds, banewort, marsh mallow, etc. The plains also produce trees of various kinds: among which may be mentioned, the plane tree, which grows near springs and tombs, and attains an enormous size. One at Bir, says Ainsworth, measured thirty-six feet in circumference; and one at Daphnæ, near Antioch, forty-two feet in girth, and is supposed to have existed upwards of a thousand years. Among the fruits of the plains are the fig, mulberry, nut, pomegranate, pine, plum, vine, pear trees, etc. Among cultivated plants, Sesanum, of which an oil is made; the cotton tree, etc. And among the useful vegetables furnished by the field, the herb mallows, sorrel, mustard, and asparagus. For two months in the year, October and November, vegetation ceases in Assyria, every thing being parched up. After this period, clouds from the Lebanon, in Syria, and reverses in the mountain temperatures to the north and east over Mesopotamia and Adiabene, bring down refresh ing rains, and cause the grass to grow, and, notwithstanding subsequent frosts and storms, some composite to bud. The succession of vegetation is preserved by those plants which have succulent roots, nodes or bulbs, which preserve sufficient moisture to ensure life amidst the most arid soil. They seem to sleep during the summer drought, and awake to life again by the first rains, and prematurely put forth their buds in October. Among these are a species of tulip, crocus, and itia, an herb called by some chameleon. These are soon, however, enveloped in snow, or blasted by the wintry winds, till early in spring they again make their appearance, with all that vivid beauty of colour, and those variety of forms, which are so glowingly depicted on the canvass, or described in the pages, of eastern painters and poets. CLIMATE. The climate of Assyria is various. That of Taurus presents us with cold winters, with much snow, and hot summers. In some of the villages, the natives complain of excessive summer heats, especially at Amasiyah and Kapan. Ainsworth says, that in crossing the Marash hills in February, the snow was from two to three feet deep, and so hard as to bear a horse; and yet in occasional bare spots crocuses were in flower, and spiders were running about. At the same time of the year, in sheltered valleys, various coloured anemones bloom; and in March, the almond tree, pear, medlar, and laburnum, are in bloom. The climate of the plains is characterized by great dryness, combined with great variations in the temperature of the air. From the Mediterranean to the Tigris, there is an increase of cold in the same parallels, from west to east; but this is not the case in the plains east of the Tigris, which, sheltered by the Kurdish mountains, possess a more temperate winter. The influence of the Taurus, clad for so many months with snow, is supposed to reduce the rigour of the winter's cold, and to cause the vegetation on the plains of North Syria and Mesopotamia to be less southern than that of Sicily and Andalusia. On the other hand, the heat of the summer sun, increased by radiation and equality of level, is almost without an extenuating influence, there being scarcely any evaporation. Hence, when the winter temperature is low, the summer heats are fervid; from which cause, there are few annual and tender plants found in Assyria. Those divisions of the Assyrian empire which demand particular notice in this section, inasmuch as they were at different periods the seat of government, are Assyria Proper, and Baby. lonia. ASSYRIA PROPER. The country within the limits of Assyria Proper, is called by Pliny, Adiabene; and by Strabo, after the barbarians, Aturia or Atyria, which, as Dion Cassius observes, is a mere dialectic variety of pronunciation, instead of Assyria. Ptolemy divides Assyria Proper into five provinces or districts, thus: 1. Adiabene. This was the chief province of Assyria. It was so called, according to Ammianus, from the two rivers, Diaba and Adiaba. Adiabene had the Tigris to the west, the province of Apolloniatis to the east, Calachene to the north, and Sittacene to the south. It answers in modern times to that tract of land which extends from the river of Zaco, or the Khabour, to the southeast of the little Zab. From Strabo's expression, Adiabeni vocantur etiam Saccopodes, we learn that Adiabene lay in the north-west quarter, as the appellation of Saccopodes is now recognized in the region and district of Zaco, seventy-seven miles north-west of Mosul. 2. Arrapachitis.-This province, according to Ptolemy, was the most northern, its country being watered by the Gyndes. It corresponds exactly to the modern Matiene, or, more properly, Mardiene, where the Gyndes, according to Herodotus, has its source, the mountainous region to the north-west of Ecbatana, or Hamadan, and enters the Tigris half way between Koote and Korna. Both the Little Zab and the Gyndes originated in this district; the former running west and southwest to the Tigris, the latter south and south-east to the same stream. 3. Calachene. This province lay north of Adiabene, and corresponds to the modern district of Julameric, or the Ha Kiare Koords. 4. Chalonitis.-According to Strabo, Chalonitis was a mountainous region, about the ascent of Mount Zagros, answering to the Kelona of Diodorus and the pass of the modern Ghilanee, leading to Kermanshah. It probably contained the tract between the Hamerine hills, to the pass of Ghilanee, on the road to Kermanshah, or the tract between the Hamerine hills and Mount Zagros, now called the Aiagha Dagh. 5. Sittacene.-Sittacene lay south-east of Chalonitis, between the Silla and the Gyndes. Strabo says, Sittacene and Apolloniatis are names of the same province, the latter being the name imposed by the Greeks after the Macedonian conquest. It was so called from Apollonia, a new city founded by the Greeks. Both Strabo and Stephanus of Byzantium agree in placing Apollonia in the road from Babylon to Susa, and the latter makes it the twentieth town in that road. If, therefore, Sittacene and Apolloniatis be the same province, and the road from Babylon to Susa lay through that district, then it must have been the most south-eastern subdivision of Assyria, and must have extended from the Deeallah, or ancient Gorgos, to the Gyndes, or Hud. These five districts were again subdivided into minor districts. Thus, in Adiabene were Aturia and Arbelitis; and in the province of Calachene was the district of Marde, now Amadia. the mountains of Persian Koordistan, and pursues a north-westerly direction, and, traversing the breadth of Turkish Koordistan, empties itself with rapidity into the Tigris, about fortyfive miles below Mosul, and imparts its own turbid character to the subsequent course of that river. Its breadth, where it enters the Tigris, does not exceed sixty feet; but at the low water horse ford, on the road to Mosul, it is two hundred feet wide, at the least. In the line of road from Mosul to Arbela, now Irbil, considerably to the east of the Tigris, it is deep and unfordable, especially when swelled by the melted snows of Mount Choatras, whose hoary summits are discovered at a great distance on the right hand of the road from Bagdad to Mosul. The second river, the Caprus, also named Zabas, or Anzabus, by the latter Greek and Roman writers, is probably the present Lesser Zab. The Little Zab is a narrow but deep river, which rises in the nearer declivity of the Koordistan mountains, and pursues nearly a direct south south-west course of 150 miles to the Tigris, which it enters in lat. 35° 10. At this point, the width of the Little Zab is only twenty-five feet, although in its upper course, after it has received the Altun Su (golden water) at Altun Kupri, (golden bridge,) its breadth is nearly three times as great. It, however, dis- | charges an immense body of water into the Tigris, which immediately after forms a fearful rapid and fall, which greatly endangers the rafts that navigate the river between Mosul and Bagdad. These two rivers, according to Bochart, are the Diaba and Adiaba, or the Diava and Adiava. Diava, he observes, is lupus, or lupinus, "wolf," or "wolfish ;" diva being the Chaldee for ": a wolf:" hence he derives the Greek Lycus, which bears the same signification. Ptolemy calls it the Lukos, or "White river," an appellation which corresponds with the colour of its waters, which is most probably the proper term, Lycus being Lukos latinized. This appellation is very common in many countries; as in America, where we read of the White, Red, Yellow, and Black rivers. The larger branch of the Nile is also called the Abiad, or White River, from its muddiness; as the other is called Azrek, or Blue, from its clear ness. Adiaba, the name of the second river, is derived by the same learned writer from an Arabic word signifying "swift;" but this point is by no means clear. The modern name, Zab, he says, is corrupted from Diaba, or derived from the Hebrew Zeeb, which differ but in dialect. Thevenot, in his 66 Travels to the Levant," speaks of one river only, calls it Zarb, and says he saw it fall into the Tigris. By the natives these rivers are called Zarpi. The Zarb is spoken of by Thevenot as a large river, half as broad as the Tigris; and he observes that it is very rapid, and that its waters are whitish and very cold; whence he conceives that it is merely snow-water falling from the mountains of Koordistan. This agrees with Bochart's conjecture of the Adiaba; namely, that it derives its name from the swiftness of its course. Among the rivers of Assyria, may be justly reckoned the Tigris, not only because it bathed | all the western skirts of this country, but also because all the other rivers flowed into it, and because the great cities of this kingdom, as Nineveh, | Ctesiphon, and others, were situated thereon. Tigris.-The Tigris is said by some to have borrowed its name from the number of tigers on its banks, as Lycus did from the wolves that haunted the margin of that river. Others derive it from a Persian word signifying an arrow; both terms importing it to be rapid and violent in its course. Some travellers, however, contradict this; stating that it is a slower stream than the Euphrates, and that this is caused by the meanders with which it abounds, as well as its numerous islands and large banks of stone. Ainsworth, who accompanied the Euphrates expedition in 1838, states that the Tigris has a moderate current below Bagdad, but passing_over several ledges of rock in its course from Mosul to that city, it forms rapids of greater or lesser importance. The Scripture name of this river is Hiddekel, Gen. ii. 14; Dan. x. 4; and Bochart derives its present name from that Hebrew word. Rauwolf says, that the natives of that part of the world call it Hiddekel to this day. It is locally and usually distinguished by the term Digel, or Diglah; and if we deprive the Scripture name of the prefixed aspiration, the remainder, Dekel, has considerable analogy with it. The passage in the book of Genesis speaks of the Tigris as one of the rivers that watered the garden of Eden. "And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria;" that is, towards, or before, Assyria. Rennell, in his Geography of Herodotus, describes the source of the Tigris thus: "The Euphrates and Tigris spring from opposite sides of Mount Taurus, in Armenia; the former, from its upper level, northward; the latter, from its southern declivity; and certain of the sources of the two rivers are only separated by the summits of Taurus. And yet, notwithstanding this vicinity, the sources of the Tigris, by being in a southern exposure, where the snow melts much earlier than at the back of the mountain, and in a more elevated situation, occasion the periodical swelling of the river to happen many weeks earlier than the swellings of the Euphrates. Of the two, the Tigris seems to be the largest body of water." Pliny represents the Tigris as rising in the region of Armenia Major, from a spring in a remarkable plain, called Elongosine. It runs, he says, through the lake Arethusa, and meeting with Mount Taurus, buries itself underground, and rises again on the other side of the mountain. This account of Pliny has been adopted by Milton, in the fine description he gives of the garden of Eden. Describing the rise and course of the river which watered the garden, issuing from the country of Eden, he says : "Southward through Eden, went a river large, Nor changed his course, but through the shaggy hill, And now divided into four main streams, That by "the river large" the poet meant the Tigris, appears evident from the parallel passage, wherein he describes Satan as obtaining admission into the garden through the subterranean course, which lay remotest from the cherubic watch at the entrance. There was a place, parallel ridges gradually approximate; the one from the north-west, and the other from the south-west, till they form a stupendous narrow gorge, through which the Tigris rushes onwards. The mountains on either side run so close to the river bank, and rise so abruptly from their basis, as to render it difficult for man or beast to penetrate the lofty defile. Eleven geographical miles below this rocky barrier, the Tigris forms a low sandy island, three miles in circumference, called Jezeerat-ul Now not,(though sin, not time, first wrought the change,) Omar, or Jezeerat-Beni-Omar, signifying the The whole course of the Tigris to the sea is 854 British miles; thus:-From the remotest source to Korna, is 734 miles, and from thence to the sea, 120 miles; in all, 854, exclusive of the windings. From the source to Diyarbekr, 65; from Diyarbekr to Mosul, 230; from Mosul to Bagdad, 224; from Bagdad to the mouth of the Deeallah, 15; to the Synne, or river of Mendali, 70; from the Mendali Su, to the Hud, or ancient Gyndes, 100; from thence to the mouth of the Kera, or Kara Su, 60; and from Kara Su to the sea, 90: total, 854. From our imperfect knowledge of Asiatic geography, it is impossible to fix precisely the remotest source of the Tigris. It appears to have two sources; one from the southern route of the Taurus, and the other from the northern front of the same range: the intervening space being either a collection of small valleys, or a large valley, watered by different streams, which fall into one or the other of the branches. The western branch runs north-east along the foot of another ridge of Taurus, by which it is divided from the small lake of Gurgick, the Colchis of the ancients. It then runs east to Maaden, or the mine town, about four hours' journey, or eighteen miles west from Agana, where, when the water is low, it is not above twenty feet wide. At Agana, it enters the great valley of Diyarbekr, fifty-two miles north-west of that city, through the gorge formed by the junction of the Niphates and Masius, which here form the western limits of the valley. This branch is joined a few miles above Diyarbekr, or Amida, by the northern branch coming from the southern slope of the Niphates, or the Nimrood Dagh. This branch rises sixty-five miles to the north-west of Diyarbekr, and is probably the largest and most distant branch of the two. A little above this junction, the Tigris receives a branch from the south. At Diyarbekr, the Tigris is fordable at all times, except when swollen by the rains or melted snows, when it rises to a great height, and is very rapid. Below this city it receives several other streams from Mount Masius; and fifty miles below Diyarbekr it receives the Batmun Su, a larger stream than itself, which rises in Mount Niphates, and runs from the north-east to the south-west. In its further progress through the large oval valley of Diyarbekr, the Tigris receives a multitude of streams on the right and left from the Karadgia Dagler and the Nimrood Dagh. These island of the sons of Omar. Of the two branches forming the island, the northern is the larger, being 360 feet wide, very deep and rapid. From Mosul to Bagdad, the Tigris varies greatly in depth and breadth. Between the Great and Little Zab, it is broad and shallow, interspersed with islands spreading from half a mile to a mile in breadth. Below the Little Zab, it is from 600 yards to half a mile, and sometimes a mile wide, occasionally opening into a vast aqueous expanse, composed of islands and channels. At Tekrit, it is very wide; and at Samarra, once the royal seat of Abasside khalifs, it is a mile broad, with high banks, but shallow stream. Below the mouth of the Kufri Su, the Tigris is reduced to a width of 300 yards, across which is stationed a bridge of boats. Soon after, it expands to half a mile in breadth. At Bagdad, it is about 870 feet wide from bank to bank. Below the confluence of the Deeallah, the Tigris, augmented by the accession of this large stream, assumes a magnificent appearance, extending at intervals to a mile and a half, and even two miles wide, with high and steep banks elevated from fifteen to twenty feet above the surface of the river. At Koote-al-Hamara, about midway between Bagdad and Bussorah, it is a mile broad; and at this place the Tigris discharges a large branch equal to the Thames at London Bridge, called the Shat-ul-Hye. Seven miles below Koote-al-Hamara, the piers of an ancient stone bridge are to be seen; but by whom, and at what date they were erected, is unknown. In the lower part of its course, the Tigris runs on a higher level than the country adjoining its banks; hence the inundations are great on both sides during the periodical swellings. At Kornah, the Tigris combines with the Euphrates, and becomes an immense stream, and so deep, that a large frigate may anchor close to the angle of land formed by the junction. Fifty miles below Kornah is Bassora, where the tide rises and falls nine feet; and seventy miles below this city it falls into the Persian Gulf. Like the Nile, at certain seasons of the year, the Tigris overflows its banks. According to Parsons, who spent most of a summer and autumn at Bagdad, and whose account appears to demand greater credence than any other, the commencement of this periodical inundation, or rise, begins in the latter end of October, and continues to June 7, or a space of nearly eight months. For about a week, the river continued stationary; and the first symptom of decrease took place on the 14th of the same month. At this date, it fell an inch and a half, and continued gradually to fall till September 30, when the |