ITS CLIMATE. 
403 
the sun did not exceed the heat of one of the most delightful 
summer days in England. The evenings were particularly soft 
and balmy. Such is the winter of Babylonia ; and we cannot be 
surprised that it once rivalled Susa in the eyes of the Persian 
monarchs, as an occasional winter residence. It was then the 
most productive region in the world ; it is now, perhaps, one of 
the most sterile. Situated between two of the finest rivers in 
Asia, it commanded all the advantages of irrigation, to produce 
the most abundant fruits and harvests; and the dispositions of 
the numerous canals (now broken up and useless) evince the 
judicious care with which all these facilities were managed by 
the Chaldaean peasant and his overseer. 
The Tigris I have already amply described, when writing of 
Bagdad. The Euphrates, (on whose banks I had passed so 
many interesting hours,) though not so rapid as its sister stream, 
is infinitely more majestic, and claims a longer course, rising 
from three sources amongst the mountains of Armenia. The 
most distant, springs a few miles to the north of Arzeroom, 
where it bears the name of the Kara-Sou, a title common to 
streams in Persia. The second source rises about thirty miles 
south of Arzeroom, and is called the West Frat; and the third 
springs many miles to the east, not far from Bayazid. After 
flowing thus in three currents to the south-west, through 
many a wild glen and rich valley, all unite in one channel 
at the foot of the mountains, (nearly opposite the source of the 
Tigris;) and thence winding on in full stream, south and 
south-west, in a corresponding course to that of the Tigris, 
the two rivers form a junction at Korna; and under the ap¬ 
pellation of the Shat-el-Arab, “ the river of Arabia,” roll on in 
one noble flood to the Persian Gulf, 70 miles south of Bussora. 
3 f 2 
