252 Mr. Carter on the Delta of the Persian Gulf, 



vance had been made by the land upon the sea, the inquiry na- 

 turally arises, what " evidence," what " demonstration" did this 

 afford, on the principles of the reply, of Pliny's deep consi- 

 deration of the topic, seeing that he thus drew, on its theory, 

 a totally wrong conclusion? But passing that, we come to 

 the assertion that Pliny pointedly contrasts the effect of tide 

 in the Persian Gulf with that of the want of it in the Mediter- 

 ranean. On this I have merely to observe, that neither in 

 the context of this passage, where from the terms employed 

 we ought to find it, nor I believe elsewhere, will Pliny be 

 found to have made any such remark, nor even any allusion 

 to the topic of this " pointed contrast". If it be intended only 

 as the construction put by the writer on the above passage 

 about the Persian Gulf, combined with the opinion that Pliny 

 was born so near the sea as the inland town of Verona, it 

 should, under favour, so have been given. As it is, it comes 

 with the authority and effect of the undoubted act of that 

 great author. 



And then, rather unfavourably for this evidence of Pliny's 

 early familiarity with the rapid formations by the Po and 

 Adige, he has, in the former part of his work, spoken par- 

 ticularly of the Po, and the phenomena of its embouchure 

 in the Adriatic. He there tells us, that from the accessions 

 obtained by its waters, it runs over, and most per so?is say, thus 

 forms a triangular figure between the Alps and the sea, as the 

 Nile in Egypt makes what they call Delta*. Thus, so far 

 from stating that he had long been "entirely familiar" with 

 the locality, and had been watching these great alluvial 

 changes, he is quite silent on the topic, and as to the course 

 which the channels of the river here took, does not profess 

 even to have seen it, but observes simply, " most persons 

 say so". 



From the conjoint tenor of these two papers, I am not very 

 certain, however, what the amount of alluvial formation at the 

 head of the Persian Gulf may be, which is by this time con- 

 tended for. Indeed, we also seem to be thrown by the reply 

 into much the same perplexity which bewildered Pliny. In 

 the former paper we had a construction of Nearchus's esti- 



* " His se Padus miscet, ac per hrec effunditur plerisque, ut in Egypto 

 Nilus, quod vocant Delta triquetram figuram inter Alpes ataue oram maris 

 facere proditus stad. duum M. circuitu." (Pliny, Hist. Nat., lib. iii. cap. 16.) 

 See the whole chapter on this topic. Whether we are to read with Dr. Hol- 

 land a space of 2000 paces, or with others 2000 stadia, is a point not ne- 

 cessary here to decide. It will, I presume, scarcely be said that Pliny, in 

 using the word Delta, did so in the modern geological sense of an area of 

 alluvial land. He simply thus describes the figure formed by the divided 

 streams of the river. 



