512 Mr. Beke on the former Extent of the Persian Gulf, 
taken with all the imperfections in geographical knowledge 
belonging to his age; but the whole context affords a mani- 
fest indication that, so late as about his time, (the beginning 
of the second century of our zera,) the Euphrates possessed its 
separate delta, of which the apex was above Babylon, and of 
which the western branches formed lakes and marshes below 
that city; whilst (although the junction is not mentioned,) the 
most eastern branch, as it passed by Seleucia, must have joined 
the Tigris. The outlet of the lakes and marshes into the sea 
is also not described; in fact, as Pliny tells us, it was already 
closed up by the Orcheni: but the authorities cited by Mr. 
Carter, as also Herodotus to whom I shall presently refer, 
plainly show that, at an earlier period, the delta streams of the 
Euphrates had their separate union with the Persian Gulf. 
In my last paper* I attempted to show how these lakes and 
marshes at the mouths of the Euphrates would, in the first 
instance, have been produced, and how, subsequently, the 
branches of the river which formed them would successively 
have been stopped and filled up by the operation of natural 
means, the western branches being those which were first 
closed. The Orcheni would have finished the work of nature 
by stopping up the eastern arm, which, till then, discharged 
itself into the sea, not more than 25 or 27 miles (as stated by 
Pliny,) from the western mouth of the Tigris; and the lakes 
and marshes of the Euphrates, having no longer a channel 
through them, would then gradually have become silted up, 
in the manner I have further suggested in the same paper. 
Much light would be thrown upon the subject if, by local 
examination, it were determined (which it might be without 
much difficulty,) how far westward the course of any branch of 
the Euphrates has once extended +. 
piovra, ab tov Oi Dercunsins, Gv 6 msteey xarsivas Basiasiog rorepoc, 
Ob Sols THe EXTLOTNS LLOLLLS sereeeeseoerene veeee 00 AE x. —Lib. v. cap. 18. 
"ACEI acececncercctnccnnccnseronsccessonesen abs KOS. 
iD qv 4 tov Baoirsiov rorapmov reds tov Tier ovpeSoay, yy Ae Kage. 
—Ibid. 
Arcepétovar 02 rAv xaouv OTe Basirsios worms, nal 6 bie tHe BaGvadvos 
fav, xal 6 xaerovuevos Beccegoccens: os Tw wiv EvQeary ovpearrss, xara Seow 
ZOE OVTLY (OT rrerscseceeceeesees snadahttogech aces a6 XO So’. 
Ta 0: die Baluarwvias, os xarsizas 0 Buoirsioc rorepos CUVEE TOV. 
of =O a’. 
Tlosotor té of roramol obrol, nal wi ax witav exteoral Aluvas nal Edn, 
Sv vod evry cov ered sabres LT ccceeersere in s’ XB s’.—Lib.v. cap. 20. 
Edit. Basil. 1533. 
* Lond. and Edinb. Phil. Mag., vol. vii. p. 45. 
+ The most eastern branch of the Euphrates, which joined the Tigris 
above Babylon, would appear also to have become closed, unless indeed it 
