cH. xxin.] The E7iphrates J'^alley. 169 



irrigation, superior to that of most rivers, and leave 

 a deposit of good mould where they have passed. 

 In early times and till Avithiu the last five hundred 

 years the Upper Euphrates Valley was a rich 

 agricultural district, supporting its rural popula- 

 tion as well as the commercial inhabitants of its 

 numerous wealthy towns. For two centuries how- 

 ever no pLjugh, it may almost be said, has turned a. 

 furrow on its shores. The fields have lain fallow, 

 and have been pastured by the Bedouins, and the 

 lower lands within reach of the annual inundation 

 have become one large jungle of tamarisk. 



Further down, the river changes its aspect, the 

 valley grows narrow, and groves of palm trees take 

 the place of tamarisk beds, while the desert comes 

 down to the very water's edge. Here villages are 

 found, reduced no doubt from their ancient import- 

 ance, but still occuppng the sites they held in 

 Biblical days : — Uz, the city where Job dwelt, Hitt 

 and Jebbeli the home of the Hittites and Jebusites, 

 and others perhaps less easy to recognise, but of 

 as great antiquity. Hitherto, the river has cut its 

 way as if by violence through the surrounding 

 country, flowing through a valley which it has 

 scooped out for itself two hundred or three hundred 

 feet below the level of the plain, and having as 

 little natural connection with it as a railway travers- 

 incr an ao-ricultural district in Enoland. It receives 

 nothing from the neighbouring lands in the way of 

 tributaries, nor does it give anything out of its own 



