ON THE GARDEN OF EDEN. 111 
Swairak, on its way down from the highlands of Armenia in 
most extraordinary circuitous windings, and seems as if it 
was not following its proper primitive course. It starts about 
60 miles to the north of Wan, and, after it proceeds almost in 
a straight line for 180 miles south-westerly, it winds round 
and takes a south-easterly direction for 60 miles longer to 
within 20 miles of the Tigris, and then it proceeds on its 
downward course to the plain of Padan-Aram.* in Northern 
Mesopotatnia, the land of Abraham, the faithful Patriarch’s 
nativity. 
Having now concluded what I had to say about the con- 
tested site of the Garden of Eden, I must intrude upon your 
patience, to bear with me a little time longer, in placing 
before you some particulars in connection with the disputed 
landmarks of the native country of Abraham, Job, and 
Balaam. 
Doubtless, you are all awaie, that from time immemorial 
the position of “Ur of the Chaldees” has been shrouded 
in mystery, as it was only mentioned in the Old Testament 
in connexion with Abraham’s call. In this case also we must 
take the Sacred Record as the foundation of our reasoning, 
because all other notices of the land of his nativity were only 
opinions and deductions arrived at by later critics. 
In the 20th verse of the 11th chapter of Genesis we are 
told that “Haran died before his father, Terah, in the land 
of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees;” and in the 31st 
verse it is recorded that “'Terah took Abram his son, and 
Lot, the son of Haran, his son’s son, and Sarai, his daughter- 
in-law, his son Abraham’s wife; and they went forth with 
them from Ur of the Chaldees to go into the land of Canaan, 
and they came into Haran and dwelt there.” In the first 
verse of the next chapter (Gen. xii), it is thus written :— 
“ Now the Lord had said unto Abram, get thee out of thy 
country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, 
into a land that I will show thee.” We are not told how 
long Abram remained at Haran before he went into Canaan, 
but we know from the preceding chapter that he was there 
with his father, and it is therefore to be taken for granted, 
that when he was commanded to leave his country, his 
kindred, and his father’s house, that he was not in a foreign 
land as the case would have been if he had gone there from 
the neighbourhood of the Persian Gulf, about 700 miles ta 
*. Gen. xxv., 205 xxvili., 6 and 7; xxxi., 18;/xxxv., 9, 26, 
~ Gen, xxiv., 4, 10. 
