May 11, 1857.] RAWLINSON ON MOHAM'RAH. 353 



how he supposed the attack to have taken place, judging from his 

 personal knowledge of the country, and from the accounts he had 

 received from the spot, of the commander's intentions. At present 

 it was of more importance that he should explain the particular 

 geographical configuration of the place, in reference to its national 

 dependency: one of the questions constantly asked being, " AVhere 

 is Moham'rah ? is it in Persia or in Turkey ? or is it on the frontier 

 between the two countries ? " Kow there was a little map hanging 

 on the wall, which had been drawn up by the Turco-Persian Frontier 

 Commission, presided over on our part by our associate Sir Wm. Fen- 

 wick Williams, and which showed the exact frontier between the two 

 countries the whole way from Ararat to the Persian Gulf. This survey 

 he might say, en passant, was one of the most valuable and important 

 geographical works which had been undertaken for a very long time 

 past. The whole line of frontier stretching from Ararat to the 

 Persian Gulf, together with a considerable extent of teriitory on 

 either side, had been minutely and scientifically surveyed by English 

 and Russian officers, under the direction of Sir Fenwick Williams 

 on the part of the English government, and of General Tcherikoif 

 on the part of the Russian government. The sketch-map hanging 

 on the wall merely exhibited the result of that great survey, the 

 details of which were, he believed, now being again put together at 

 Constantinople, after an interruption of some years caused by the 

 war which took place between Turkey and Russia. The line of 

 frontier, they would perceive, ran down here, from the extremity 

 of the mountain-range to the sea. He must explain that the 

 physical law which was held to regulate teriitorial distribution 

 between Persia and Turkey in this quarter was, that the country 

 watered by the Euphrates belonged to Turkey, and the country 

 watered by the Karun belonged to Persia. Moham'rah was here. 

 The great Persian river Karun came down in that direction from the 

 north-east, while the Sha,t-el-Arab, formed of the Tigris and Euphrates 

 joined together, came down in this direction from the north-west. 

 The question was, then, whether Moham'rah was on the Euphrates or 

 on the Kariin ? If on the Karun it was Persian ; but if on the 

 Euphrates it was Turkish. After a great deal of discussion, all the 

 prvs and cons bein^ given in the report which he held in his hand, it 

 was decided that it should be Persian. This decision he believed 

 to be contrary to geographical propriety ; but nevertheless it might 

 have been a proper decision in a political point of view ; in fact, if 

 it had not been so ruled, and Persia had not been encouraged to 

 consolidate her position on the lower Euphrates, we should not have 

 been able at the present day to have exerted that pressure Tipon her 



