200 Mr. Carter on the Delta of the Persia?i Gulf, 



Khorna*. From Khorna, then, there must be an ample rise 

 north-west along the course of the Tigris, and from it a de- 

 scent south-west towards the level of the Euphrates ; and as 

 the rivers of Susiana run in this direction f, there must be a 

 further rise over the delta through Susiana to the mountains. 

 Whilst, on the other hand, the currentof the gulf setting strongly 

 from the north-east to the south-west, — from the direction of 

 the Tigris towards that of the Euphrates, — must, on this theory, 

 rather have raised the relative level of the Euphrates' channel 

 throughout the mighty embankment. 



But we see the rise is, in fact, the other way, and it is mani- 

 festly impossible to reconcile the degree and extent of this 

 variation of level and the general phenomena of the supposed 

 delta, with the existence here of such a formation. Indeed, 

 were it so, the Tigris, in thus constructing its own bed and 

 channel, must necessarily have done it in the direction of the 

 declivity towards the Euphrates; and thus, at the earliest stage 

 of this progress, would inevitably have fallen into the channel 

 of that river. We should then have had, for a short space, 

 the united stream in one channel, which would doubtless, as in 

 other instances, and as these waters do below Bosra, have 

 spread out into diverging streams till they reached the gulf. 



And, now, on this topic, to revert to the point we started 

 from, the gulf being 580 miles up the country 100 years after the 

 flood. Even supposing for a moment all that extent of land 

 to be the production of this agency, it is geologically a little 

 singular that the inquiry did not arise, What connexion has 

 that event with the topic? It has before been admitted, that it 



* Both at a very early and in the present day clouds have hung about 

 this topic. Arrian, 1. vii. c. 7-, says expressly, the Euphrates has a higher 

 channel than the Tigris, which receives the waters of the Euphrates by 

 many streams. Prof. Heeren (De la Politique, fyc. de V Antiquite,Fr.ed., vol. ii. 

 s. 2.) refers to, and seems to have been misled by, this passage, for though 

 he quotes from the proceedings of the Bombay Society, u the tide passes up 

 the Euphrates for 20 miles above Khorna, and stops there at the mouth of 

 the Tigris,'' (Mr. Barker in Evidence, Report, &c, says there is no percepti- 

 ble tide at Bosra, 12 miles below Khorna,) to show that the Tigris is far the 

 more rapid river, he overlooks the fact that it can be more rapid only through 

 flowing from a higher country down a greater slope. Xenophon under- 

 stood this better : he mentions four canals by which the latter pours its 

 waters into the Euphrates (Anab., I. i. c. 7«). The same may be inferred 

 from Justin (42. 3.); and Captain Chesney (Report, &c.) informs us of the 

 canal of "the Hie by which the Tigris gives a large contribution to the 

 sister stream," about 220 miles above the gulf. The error may have arisen 

 from the Euphrates having raised its bed above the immediate level over 

 which it passes. Its waters, therefore, would run from it through the ir- 

 rigating canals till they came to the rise towards the Tigris. 



f Strabo, 1. xv. 728. 



