on the jEra of the Union of the Tigris and Euphrates. 109 



those mighty rivers. The extent of this alluvial soil can of 

 course be easily ascertained, and we may obtain, conse- 

 quently, the means of determining what was the extent north- 

 ward of the Persian Gulf at some former period ; though, from 

 our inability to calculate the rate at which the new land has 

 been formed, we may not be able to arrive at any certain con- 

 clusion as to the period when the change from sea to land of 

 any portion of the country actually took place. Mr. Lyell 

 remarks*, that " The union of the Tigris and the Euphrates 

 must undoubtedly have been one of the modern geographical 

 changes on our earth." By this expression it would almost 

 seem that Mr. Lyell meant it to be inferred that the union of 

 the two rivers has not taken place within the historical asra, 

 as have those of the Ganges and Burrampooter, and other 

 rivers instanced by him ; but this could hardly, I should 

 think, have been his intention, when we consider that Pliny 

 expressly tells us that " between the mouths of these two 

 rivers where they fall into the sea, were counted, in old times, 

 twenty-five miles, or, as some would have it, but seven f ." 

 Indeed, if the estimation made by Nearchus of the distance 

 from the mouth of the Euphrates to Babylon be correct, not 

 merely were these two rivers separate, at a comparatively late 

 period, but the increase of the land at the head of the Persian 

 Gulf must have taken place at an extraordinarily rapid rate. 

 The distance mentioned by him is only 3300 stadia}, or little 

 more than 200 miles; whilst the actual distance, at the pre- 

 sent time, from Hillah, where the ruins of Babylon are now 

 supposed to be situate, is in a straight line at least 300 miles. 

 But the statement of Pliny § with respect to the city of Cha- 

 rax, on the confluence of the Tigris and Eulaeus, not merely 



• Principles of Geology, vol. i. p. 252, 1st edit. 



\ Holland's Pliny, book vi. ch. xxvii. 



t Voyage of Nearchus, ch. xli. Dr. Vincent, in a note on this passage 

 in his translation, says " 3300 stadia [of sixteen to a mile : see his Pre- 

 face, p. xi.l make little more than 200 miles English ; the real distance by 

 the river is more than 400. But may not Nearchus calculate this distance 

 by stadia of eight to a mile?" The accuracy, however, of the mode thus 

 adopted by the learned translator, and by Geographers generally, of recon- 

 ciling apparent discrepances in the works of ancient writers, by varying 

 the standard of measurement, may legitimately be questioned. 



& " Charax oppidum Pcrsici sinus intimum, a quo Arabia Eudamion cog- 

 nominata excurrit, habitatur in colle manufacto inter confluentes, dextra 

 Tigrin Iseva Eultcum, iii. mil. pass, laxitate. Conditum est prunum ab 

 Alexandre Magno: qui... Alexandriam appellari jusserat. ...Prius fuitaj.tore 

 bUdiiex., et maritimum ctiam ipsa inde portum habuit : Juba vrro pro- 

 dente, 1. mil. pass. Nunc abesse a litore cxx. mil. legatl Annum, nnstrique 

 negotiators qui inde venerc, affirmant. Ncc ulla in parte plus ant ecle- 



