248 Mr. Cartels liemarh on Mr. Beke's Papers 



on the S.W. side of the Delta, and comparing it with the 

 present state of the country, we learn with surprise the small 

 degree of change which the general characters of the coast have 

 undergone during the lapse of so many ages. Dr. Vincent, 

 in his able work " On the Commerce and Navigation of the 

 Ancients in the Indian Ocean," adverting to this remarkable 

 fact, observes, that Capt. Howe's chart " explains the journal 

 of Nearchus as perfectly as if it had been composed by a 

 person on board of his fleet," (vol. i. p. 423.), and (p. 466.) 

 " The pilot on board Nearchus's ship steered exactly the same 

 course" {along the coast of the Delta,) "as Mr. Cluer's Karack 

 pilot 2000 years afterwards." The junction of the river called 

 by Arrian the Eulaeus (coming from the N. or N.E.) with the 

 Tigris by the still existing ancient Hoffar canal, across' which 

 Alexander sent a part of his fleet while he sailed down the 

 Eulaeus to the mouths of the Tigris, and so round to meet it, 

 (Arrian, Exp. Alex. vii. 7.) further shows that to the point in 

 question any later encroachments on the gulf must be very 

 unimportant. 



This supposed extension of the Delta over nearly 400 miles 

 seems, moreover, as little aided by Nearchus's calculation of 

 the distance in his time between the gulf and Babylon. Dr. 

 Vincent intimates that in calling it 3300 stadia, Nearchus 

 should be understood as speaking of stadia of about eight to 

 a mile (412 miles). To this Mr. Beke objects as merely an 

 estimate of convenience. Now it happens that Pliny, the other 

 authority, who must have understood Nearchus's terms of di- 

 stance better than we can, expressly says, (vi. 26.) " Euphrate 

 navigari Babylonem e Persico mari 412 mill, pass." (about 412 

 miles) " tradunt Nearchus et Onesicritus." The latter was pi- 

 lot and master of Alexander's own ship. Then as to Juba's 

 opinion Pliny goes on to say, " Juba a Babylone Characem 

 175 mill. pass. ;" that is, Juba (the second) made it in his time, 

 adding the 50 miles he accounted it from Charax to the sea, 

 225 miles onlv from the sea to Babylon, and this was 340 

 years after the calculation of Nearchus and Onesicritus which 

 made it 412. So that we shall, perhaps, be inclined to con- 

 cur with Pliny in the remark, " Inconstantiam mensurse diver- 

 sitas auctorum facit." From such discordant opinions it is hard 

 to " learn the true measure," rather than infer from them 

 " the actual rate at which the Persian Gulf had been filled 

 up during the 400 years immediately preceding his time." 



Mr. Beke animadverts on Mr. Lyell's speaking of the union 

 of the Euphrates and Tigris as if not manifestly within the 

 historic aera (in Geology, vol. i.), seeing that Pliny (vi. 27.) 

 says that in ancient times some made it 25 miles between their 



