46 LOFTUS. " [Feb. 25, 1856. 



tions both as a traveller and explorer, as shown not on this occasion 

 only, but on many others. In fact Mr. Loftus might be called the 

 discoverer of Wurka. He was the first to visit those remains, and 

 he succeeded in exploring them more thoroughly after the French expe- 

 dition, which had been supplied by their Government with every 

 assistance, had pronounced success to be impossible. It was riglit to 

 say that it was mainly owing to his character and abilities that Mr. 

 Loftus was enabled, with no such advantages, to accomplish what he 

 had done. 



The best existing maps give a very imperfect representation of the 

 ancient condition of the country about the Tigris and Euphrates. The 

 land consists of a soft soil, and the rivers consequently are always chang- 

 ing their beds. The cliannels of the Tigris and Euphrates are now very 

 different from what they were anciently, and thus it is that all the ancient 

 cities are now at some distance from the rivers. The population of the 

 country was in former times almost entirely dependent upon the canals. 

 He then called attention to a verse in the Bible (Gen. x. 25) which was 

 translated so as to convey a false impression. " In his days was the earth 

 divided " simply means that the land of Babylon was then first divided 

 by canals, i. e., civilisation was first instituted, for cities could only 

 exist after the vi^ater of the river had been distributed over their neigh- 

 bourhoods by means of canals. The word " Peleg " is never applied to 

 the division of one country from another, but almost always to the cut- 

 ting of canals. It is certain that the whole country was once com- 

 pletely reticulated by canals. The Tigris and Euphrates supplied great 

 branches, which in this way were made so to intersect the country that 

 it became a complete garden ; and although it is now an absolute desert, 

 it might be restored by a system of canals, so as to become as fertile as 

 it was in former times. 



Sir Henry Rawlinson then proceeded to make a few remarks on some 

 of the sites visited by Mr. Loftus. These, he said, were the sites of 

 the earliest cities that we know of in the world. Four cities are men- 

 tioned in Gen. x. 10, viz., Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh ; and it is 

 mainly owing to bricks obtained by Mr. Loftus, that great discoveries 

 with respect to these cities have recently been made. From bricks 

 obtained at Niffar and other sites, it would appear that during the early 

 period of history, i. e., about the twenty-fifth century before the Chris- 

 tian era, and from that period to the taking of Babylon, the country 

 was inhabited not by a Semitic, but by a Hamite race — a race desig- 

 nated in the Bible by the name of Nimroud. Their language was cognate 

 with the Scythian on one side, and with the African on the other. The 

 people were, in fact, Cushite ; their temples, language, &c. belong to 

 the Accadian race. All the memorials obtained are Cushite, in a Ian- 



