VIEW OF THE EUPHRATES. 297 
place, the present pasha is cutting a very extensive new canal; 
which may prove useful to himself, but to the future European 
traveller, can only add another link to the bewildering maze 
which has hitherto thrown out all his predecessors from ascer¬ 
taining the realities of ancient Babylon ; the chief cause of every 
difficulty in tracing any regular plan from the general remains, 
having always arisen from the like intersections, (the work of so 
many different ages, from Nimrod to Pasha Dowd!) dividing 
and subdividing the mined embankments again and again, like 
a sort of tangled net-work over the interminable ground. 
An hour and a quarter more brought us to the north-east 
shore of the Euphrates, hitherto totally excluded from our view 
by the intervening long and varied lines of ruin, which now 
proclaimed to us on every side, that we were, indeed, in the 
% 
midst of what had been Babylon. From the point on which we 
stood, to the base of Mujelibe, large masses of ancient founda¬ 
tions spread on our right, more resembling natural hills in 
appearance, than mounds covering the remains of former great 
and splendid edifices. To the eastward also, chains of these 
undulating heaps were visible, but many not higher than the 
generality of the canal embankments we had passed. The whole 
view was particularly solemn. The majestic stream of the Eu¬ 
phrates wandering in solitude, like a pilgrim monarch through 
the silent ruins of his devastated kingdom, still appeared a noble 
river, even under all the disadvantages of its desert-tracked 
course. Its banks were hoary with reeds, and the grey osier 
willows were yet there, on which the captives of Israel hung¬ 
up their harps, and while Jerusalem was not, refused to be com¬ 
forted. But how is the rest of the scene changed since then ! 
At that time, these broken hills were palaces ; those long undu- 
Q Q 
VOL. IX. 
