RIVEK FLOODS INADEQUATE 75 



periodic inundations dependent upon the annual 

 melting of the snow on the mountains at its sources ; 

 and it has been suggested that, in a year of excessive 

 snow thawing or rainfall, an inundation of e^~ptional 



* ^tf^^^ 



extent might have taken place and given rise to the 

 tradition. But there is no record of such floods in 

 recent or historical times, and neither Ainsworth nor 

 Dr. Kauwolff, who visited the country in 1573, make 

 mention of any. Mr. Loftus tells us that at Bagdad 

 the ordinary annual rise of the river is 17J feet, 

 though in 1849 it rose to 22J feet, which was con- 

 sidered extraordinary. 1 



Moreover, in valleys subject to annual floods, the 

 inhabitants, aware of their danger, avoid the lower 

 lands, and build on ground well above the reach of 

 the waters, so that the floods could never be so 

 disastrous as in river-valleys where their occurrence 

 is exceptional. In the Euphrates Valley, the towns 

 and villages are as a rule all on rising ground or 

 hills. Besides, in the Babylonian account of the 

 Flood, it is stated that it covered the whole of the 

 land with the exception of the highest hills. Allow- 

 ing for the figurative character of the expression, this 

 is a circumstance highly improbable if not impossible 

 to have happened as the result of a river-flood. 



We must therefore look for some other cause to 

 account for the tradition; and considering the close 

 agreement indicated by the geological phenomena 



1 Loftus, Quart. Journ. Geol Soc. t Vol. xi., p. 250. The mud 

 deposit on the banks at Bagdad attained a depth of six feet. 

 There was another great flood in 1831. 



