42 Mr. Beke on the Geological Evidence of the Advance of 



It would, however, be most unreasonable to imagine that 

 the quantity of detritus brought down by the rivers which 

 flow into the Persian Gulf was not of far greater amount than 

 that of the rivers of the Adriatic, when we consider that the 

 Po itself is surpassed in size by many of the tributaries of the 

 Tigris, whilst " the great river, the river Euphrates*," ex ~ 

 ceeds it at least five times in length. 



It may be impossible to determine the precise proportion 

 between the quantities of detritus transported by the two 

 classes of rivers respectively ; but it will not be unreasonable 

 to assume (as a first approximation only) that equal quantities 

 of detritus have been produced from equal spaces of the coun- 

 tries drained. Looking, then, to the basin of the Po and its 

 tributaries, which extends southward to the confines of Tus- 

 cany, from which country it is parted by the Apennines; 

 westward to the extremity of Piedmont, where the chain of 

 the Alps surrounds it ; and northward to where the Ticino, 

 the Adda, and the Adige bring down the waters from a por- 

 tion even of Switzerland and the Tyrol, we cannot compute 

 its area at more than 45,000 square miles. On the other hand, 

 if we regard the vast countries watered by the numerous and 

 widely spreading affluents of the Euphrates and Tigris and 

 the other rivers which discharge themselves into the Persian 

 Gulf, — from the Arabian and Syrian deserts to the westward, 

 as far as Asia Minor and Armenia towards the north, and 

 thence to Koordistan and Khusistan towards the east; and 

 even yet further in that direction beyond the Baktiari range 

 of mountains; — it will be an error in defect rather than in ex- 

 cess to reckon their area at 270,000 square miles ; that is to 



B.C., or 4589 years since. If we take the date of the erection of Babel as 

 usually computed, it will differ about 500 years from this, making the 

 quantity of new land about 250 square miles less than as stated above. 



This result is, of itself, sufficient to occasion very strong doubts as to the 

 identity of the site of the Babel of Nimrod with that of the ruins in the 

 neighbourhood of Hillah, and to induce us to look for it further to the 

 northward. Its real position was most probably in the north-western 

 portion of the land of Shinar, or Mesopotamia: see Orig. Bibl. t pp. 25 

 and 66. 



* Does not the fact that in the times of Abraham, of Moses, and of 

 Joshua, the Euphrates was styled M the great river," xocr* i%,offlv> (see Gen. 

 xv. 18; Deut. i. 7, xi. 24; Josh. i. 4.,) lead to the presumption that the 

 Nile, a river far greater and much more remarkable than the Euphrates, 

 could not have been known to the inspired writers at those early periods ; 

 thus further confirming the opinion advanced in Origines Biblices as to the 

 original distinction between the Mitzraim of Scripture and the Egypt 

 of Profane History? The former country, I will simply mention in this 

 place, I conceive to have been altogether to the eastward of the Isthmus of 

 Suez. 



