afid on the Non-identity of Babylon and Babel. 41 



sea^ and that Belus caused this state of things to cease, and 

 appointed to each its proper place, and surrounded Babylon 

 with a wall *." 



As to the supposition that " Shinar must have embraced 

 no very extensive range," there is not the slightest ground lor 

 it. Like Asia — which name was gradually extended from a 

 small portion of Lydia, first to Asia Minor, and then to an 

 entire quarter of the globe, — and many other names of coun- 

 tries, it may well have had very different applications at dif- 

 ferent times; and in the latter portions of the Scriptural hi- 

 story the same name was probably given to the whole country 

 beyond the Euphrates, of the north-western portion of which 

 the early Shinar was only a small division. 



I have at present to add but little on the geological portion 

 of the subjectf. Were the " power of the Euphrates, Tigris, 

 and neighbouring streams to form new lands and expel the 

 ocean," a solitary case and opposed to the usual course of 

 nature, Mr. Carter might justly characterize it as " extraor- 

 dinary," and might even be excused for imagining it to be 

 " supposed " ; but seeing that all rivers on the face of the 

 earth under similar, or even yet less advantageous circum- 

 stances, do actually possess this powerj, it would indeed be 

 extraordinary if these rivers alone were to be excepted from 

 the rule. Even an instance of the formation of rock within 

 the limits of the most recent fluviatiie deposits is furnished us 



* TLccvTtx fASv £| ^fji^? u5ii)g ili/cct, ^a,>ot,aaoe,v KxT^eofthriu. Bij^.o* 3e a(pe» 

 Travaxi, x^^'t" sicaizra) ^Troi/ei/^ocuTd, x,ul Sx/ivT^aux Tit'xn 'KipiZxhiiv. 

 Euseb. FrcEi). Evan. lib. 10. in Cory's Anc. Frag. p. 45. It is deserving of 

 attention that Megasthenes further states that when Nebuchadnezzar re- 

 built Babylon " he constructed dykes against the irruptions of the Persian 

 Gulf:" 'fTmiixiot 06 x.xi t^j 'Epuffpij^ ^x'ka.aayi; tviv i'7ri'0\vaiv.{ibid.), — a pre- 

 caution which would seem to have been rather needless and extraordinary, 

 unless the sea then approached much nearer to the city than it does at 

 present. The lakes and marshes of the Euphrates would, doubtless, at that 

 period have extended very far northward, and might well have been " called 

 the sea." 



1 1 must remark that my paper in the Number of your Journal for July last, 

 (1835,) was (as, indeed, you are well aware,) not written for the pages of this 

 Journal, it having been destined by me for an entirely different purpose ; 

 and it was consequently not meant as an answer to Mr. Carter's arguments. 

 In consequence, however, of my subsequently requesting you to give it in- 

 sertion " as a continuation of my former paper," that gentleman was, I 

 allow, entirely warranted in regarding it in the light of a further answer. 

 This explanation will account for the want of connexion which exists be- 

 tween that paper and my former communications, — a want of connexion 

 which is commented upon by my opponent. 



X See the many instances adduced by Mr.Lyell in his Principles of Geo- 

 logy, \o\. i. ch. 13, 14. 



Third Series. Vol.9. No. 51. July 1836. G 



