BOOK VI .] History of Nature. \ 43 



Side it breaketh forth again in a Place which is called Zoro- 

 anda. That it is the same River is evident by this, that it 

 carrieth through whatever was cast into it. After this second 

 Spring, it runneth through another Lake, named Thospites, 

 and again taketh its Way under the Earth through Gutters, 

 and 25 Miles beyond it is returned about Nymphaeum. 

 Claudius Caesar reporteth, that in the Country Arrhene, it 

 runneth so near to the River Arsanias, that when they both 

 swell they join, but without mingling their Water; for Arsa- 

 nias, being the lighter, floateth over the other, for almost the 

 Space of four Miles ; but soon after they part asunder, and it 

 turneth its Course toward the River Euphrates, into which 

 it entereth. But Tigris receiving the famous Rivers out of 

 Armenia : Parthenis, Agnice, and Pharion, so dividing the 

 Arabians, Aroeans, and the Adiabeni, and by this means 

 making, as we have said, Mesopotamia to be an Island, after 

 it hath passed by and viewed the Mountains of the Gordiaei, 

 near Apamia, a Town of Mesene on this side Seleucia, sur- 

 named Babylonia, 125 Miles. Dividing itself into two Chan- 

 nels, with the one it runneth southward to Seleucia, watering 

 the Country of Mesene ; and with the other it windeth to 

 the north, on the back of the said Mesene, and cutteth 

 through the Plains of the Cauchians. When these two 

 Branches are united again, it is called Pasitigris. After this 

 it receiveth out of Media the Coaspes ; and so passing be- 

 tween Seleucia and Ctesiphon, as we have said, it poureth 

 itself into the Lakes of Chaldsea, which it replenisheth with 

 Water for the Compass of threescore and ten Miles : which 

 done, it issueth forth, gushing out with a very great Stream, 

 and on the right of the Town Charax is discharged into the 

 Persian Sea, by a Mouth ten Miles over. Between the 

 Mouths of these two Rivers were 25 Miles, or, as some say, 

 seven : and both of them were navigable. But the Orcheni 

 and other neighbouring Inhabitants long since turned the 

 Course of Euphrates aside to water their Fields, insomuch 

 that it is conveyed into the Sea, only through the Tigris. 

 The next Country bordering upon the Tigris is called Para- 

 potamia : in it is Mesene, of which we have spoken. Its 



