The permanent flooding of the Euphrates is caused by the melting of the snow in the moun tains along the upper part of its course. This takes place about the beginning of March, and it increases gradually up to the time of barley harvest, or about the last days in May, when it is usually at its greatest height. The river continues high, and its course very rapid, for 30 or 40 days ; but afterwards thero is a daily decrease, which becomes very small and regular towards the autumn. From the middle of September to the middle of October tho river is at the lowest. Lieut. Rennie found the quantity of water dis charged by the Euphmtes at IIit to be 72,804 cubic feet per second; and the quantity discharged by the Tigris at Baghdad to be 164,103 cubic feet.
The Euphrates and Tigris valleys are incon siderable strips of good land, hemmed in closely by a barren desert. They have long ceased to lio on the tmck of commerce. They contain no place of importance, with the exception of the pilgrim shrines of Kerbela and Meshed Ali, and the decayed city of Baghdad, and v. few villages, depending for their subsistence on the date palm, the disforesting of the hills in tho upper part of their course having rendered both the Tigris and the Euphrates subject to sudden freshets, which overflow the banks, and wreck the labours of the husbandman. For 150 miles the latter river passes through a barren desert, succeeded by unprofitable marshes, while the Tigris from 3foeul to Baghdad boasts but three inconsiderable villages, and from Baghdad _to Bussora about six. Irak, the ancient Babylonia, is now either a swamp, or an unproductive desert covered with reh, the result of over-irrigation in ancient days. Owing to rapid alternations of flood and drought, tide vast plain, once so fertile, Is neither habitable nor cultivable at the present day. The great irriga
tion works constructed by captives have fallen into irreparable ruin ; and the miserable Arab population that now dots the plain of Irak, is useles.s for any kind of sustained labour. So late as the 12th century, Upper Mesopotamia contained several flourishing towns, dependent, however, for their existence on the traffic between Eastern Asia and Europe. As trade declined, these different stations gradually disappeared, and, under the terrible effects of Mongol and Othornan conquests, 1Vestern Asia was rapidly depopulated, and reduced to its present condition. South iVestern Persia is at present destitute eveit of nomadic and pastoral tribes, with the single exception of a tract of cultivated land lying between Dizful and Shustar and another between Dilam and Bushire. Neverlheless the region will ever bo of interest. The valley of the Euphmtes and Tigris is the home of man's earliest traditions; and Babylon was on the Euphrates, Nineveh on the Tigris. The Euphrates waa crossed by Abraham. The crossing of the Tigris, the passage of which is noticed as Heber (Eber), occurred B.C. 4500 or 5000, subsequent to Nitnrud. The mountain ous lands at the sources of this river formed tho primeval seat of the Semitic races (Bun. iii. pp. 413-460). The western side of the Euphrates, and stretching towards Felujia, is a tract pregnant with interest ; for between the last-named place and the bitumen splings of Hit, the battle of Cunaxa was fought, in which the younger Cyrus lost his life and whence Xenophon made a retreat more brilliint than victory.—Afignan's Travels, pp. 251, 326; _Porter's Travels, ii. p. 252 ; Skinner's Journey, ii. p. 185.