391 
AL HYMER, ON THE EASTERN SHORE. 
than eight miles and a half; and from the eastern bank ot the 
Euphrates opposite Anana, in a direct line it may be about 
seven miles and a half. On clearing the gardens in the vicinity 
of Hillah, we bent our course north 30° east, for full an hour. 
The country as usual was perfectly flat, except where inter¬ 
rupted by the endless travellings of old canal beds; some of 
which are of prodigious width, and of an answering depth and 
steepness, often so abrupt as to be exceedingly troublesome to 
pass. Those of largest dimensions generally run south-east, and 
the lesser north and south. Asa specimen of their enormous 
expanse, I shall particularise that of the first we crossed on 
leaving Hillah, it being also the great canal I mentioned passing 
in my first approach to that place. Were I to speak correctly, 
I should rather call it the present irregular valley , than the 
mere water-channel, it being in fact, the beds of three parallel 
canals broken down into one : the course of the largest may be 
traced to a width of 96 yards, that of the second to 30 yards, 
that of the third to 20. When in full repair, and in full stream, 
such connecting water-roads were perfectly adequate to transport 
very large vessels filled with merchandize ; and sometimes less 
happily, to sustain the fleets of many a proud conqueror. Now, 
there was not a drop of water in any of them. Every spot of 
ground in sight, was totally barren ; and on several tracks ap¬ 
peared the common marks of former building. It is an old 
adage, that “ where a curse has fallen, grass will never grow.” 
In like manner the decomposing materials of a Babylonian struc¬ 
ture, doom the earth on which they perish to a lasting sterility. 
“ In the intervals of the ruins, (Mr. Bich observes,) there are 
some patches of cultivation ; but ruins composed like those of 
Babylon, of heaps of rubbish impregnated with nitre, cannot be 
cultivated.” On this part of the plain, both where traces of 
