Present Slate of the Jluins of Balyhn. 217 



X\\e mast, four or six men take hold of the other end, and by this 

 «>eans pull her against the current. 



*' It is curious to observe, notwithstanding the lapse of ages, 

 how some local customs and usages continue in practice. The 

 circular boats made of reeds, and in form of a shield, which at- 

 tracted the notice of Herodotus so much, and which, in his time, 

 were used on the river between Babylon and Armenia, differ hardly 

 at all from those in use at the present day; which perfectly agree 

 with the description given by that venerable historian. Another 

 curio\is method of navigation exists in these times, which is no- 

 ticed as earlv as the time of Xenophon. Merchants in Armenia, 

 when embarking on the Tigris, collect a great number of goat- 

 skins, which, having inflated, they fasten together, forming a kind 

 of square raft ; these are from fifty to a hundred in number ; over 

 them aie placed mats, then the merchandize, and upon the top 

 of all, the owners and passengers. It is then set adrift, and, 

 floating down the stream, it occasionally strikes against islands 

 and shallow parts of the river, the bottom of which being of a 

 soft nature, seldom destroys the skins. 



" The flowing of the tide at Korna is a singular sight : it pre- 

 vails against the stream of the Euphrates, but finds the current 

 of the Tigris too powerful ; and, as you stand at the confluence 

 of the two rivers, you see the flood-tide flowing up the Euphrates 

 on the one hand, and forced back by the strength of the Tigris 

 on the other, forming, by this contrary direction of two currents, 

 a violent eddy between them. The tides of the Persian Gulf arc 

 sensiblv felt in the Euphrates twenty miles above Korna, or one 

 hundred and forty miles from the mouth of the river. The depth 

 of the river at Hillah, from what I could collect from the natives, 

 exceeds forty feet when nearly full : at the time I saw it, the sur- 

 face of the stream was within three feet of the edge of the bank, 

 and must, I should conceive, have been fully of that depth. It 

 had arrived very nearly at is greatest height, this being the period 

 of its annual swell. It is broader, but not so rapid, as the Dijla 

 or Tigris : tliat part of it between Karakoolee and the mounds 

 wiis very narrow: after which, as it approaches Hillah, it widens 

 considerably, and close to the mound it forms a sudden bend, 

 flowing almost between the tower of Belus and the large mound 

 opposite to it ; which appearance and formation induced me to 

 hazard a conjecture that it might formerly have passed between 

 them, instead of running to the westward of them both as it now 

 (Iocs. The inundations of the river do not tend to fertilize the 

 land ; the cultivation is carried on entirely by irrigation, the wa- 

 ter ijciug thrown up into a trough by means of a very simple 

 pi;ic!iinc constructed on the edge of the bank, and easily worked 



by 



