No subject has excited more the attention of the learn ed than the river Euphrates, with regard to its great ca nals and artificial lakes, dug for the reception of its wa ters at the season of inundation. Of the ancient autho rities, Arrian is the most explicit, and who, Dr Vincent in his learned work on the voyage of Nearchus, says, possesses the peculiar felicity of rising in estimation in proportion to the attention paid to his relations, the pu rity of the sources whence he drew, having been esta blished by subsequent discovery and investigation. The canal of Pallacopas, dug by the first of the Babylonian kings, is still in existence ; but, since the desertion of Kufa, having fallen into disrepair, about twenty years ago it was partially cleared by the Nabob of Oude, in honour of whom the Arabs now call it Hindi. It is cut from the right hank of the Euphrates, and that part of it which still holds water, extends to within five miles of the city of Meshed Ali, or Nejiff. The remainder is nearly choked up with sand, but its course may be traced from the Bahr Nejiff, or Sea of Nejiff, to the town of Zobeir, and to its termination at the Khore Abdallah in the Persian Gulf. In the neighbourhood of Babylon are still the remains of two lakes, celebra ted by the names of Ali and his son Hussein. The up per lake lies nearly on the parallel of Babylon : At its northern extremity stands the town of Kerbela, contain ing the tomb of Hussein, the grandson of Mahommed. From the southern extremity of this lake to the north ern point of the lower, or Bahr Nejiff, the distance is about twenty-five miles. Meshed Ali is situated a lit tle to the east. Into this lower lake the Euphrates was turned by the canal of Pallacopas, at the season of its floods. The opening and shutting of this canal was a part of the office of the satrap of Babylon; and, as Dr Vincent remarks, it must have been a duty of the high est importance, in a tract of country where all is desert that cannot be watered, and every spot fertile that can be flooded.
When Babylon was the capital of the East, the com mand of the waters of the Euphrates was highly ne cessary for the cultivation of the adjacent districts ; and thus, as the cities in the vicinity of its banks have flourished or decayed, its canals and dikes have been preserved or neglected. And though its grand canals have failed, the ruinous policy of the Turks, at this day, regards tile partial distribution of its waters as an object of primary importance for tire purpose of »Tip tion. Arrion gin es us tile following account of the origin and object of the canal of Pallacopas, cut from the Eu phrates to draw off its waters. For this river, he tells us, descending from the mountains of Armenia, flows within its natural channel during win ter, but receives such an accession of water in the be ginning of spring, and a still greater about the summer solstice, that, overflowing its banks, it lays under wa ter the plains of Assyria. And unless this inundation, caused by the dissolution of snows in the mountains, were diffused by means of the cut of Pallacopas over lakes and marshes, the whole of the surrounding coun try would be desolated. The waters thus drawn off, reach the main by a diversity of subterraneous courses.
Though the Euphrates again deereases after the disso lution and discharge of the snows, yet so great a part of its waters flow through the Pallaeopas, that had not means been adopted to bank up this channel, and confine the river within its natural limits, the whole Euphrates probably discharge itself in this direction, and re fuse its waters to irrigate and fertilize the plains of As syria. On this account the Satrap of Babylon, at a great expellee of labour, cut off the communication, although the work on being completed, was found to be insuffi cient; the embankment being composed of mud and such like materials, was incapable of resisting the pressure or the water, and continued to yield it a passage through the canal. Alexander, consulting the advantage of As syria, shut out the waters by a more solid and perma nent work. At a short distance, a rocky soil was found, which, when cut through, and prolonged to the Pallaco pas, offered the double -advantage of conducting the su perabundant waters, without injury to its banks, and cf affording a good foundation for the constructing of works and sluices to admit the waters of the Euphrates at its season of inundation, and to exclude them effectually when the floods had subsided, and when it became ne cessary to confine the river within its natural channel, for the cultivation of Assyria. Alexander sailed to Pal lacopas, falling clown the canal into the Bahr Nejiff. Here having fixed upon a convenient spot, he founded a city, defended by walls. Thus far we follow Arrian.
This city long retained the name of Alexandria, after that of its founder, but on its becoming the residence of a dynasty of Arabian princes, was changed to that of Kira. It is now known by the name of Nejiff or Me shed Ali, and is supplied with water by a subterraneous aqueduct, connected with the cut of Pallaeopas. This the Wahabee, in order to distress the city, broke down, so that when Captain Kinnier was at Meshed Ali, in 1808, the inhabitants of the town were obliged to bring their water in sheep skins, front a distance of three or four miles.
The Bahr Nejiff, or sea of Nejiff, (the Rahemah of D'Anville) is of equal antiquity with the Pallacopas, and a work of infinite labour. The above mentioned gentle man passed through the middle of it, in his way from Sa mavat to Meshed Ali, and found it dry, with the excep tion of a few ravines and channels of water, near which the poorer classes rear rice and vegetables. There are other canals which deserve notice. Of these, the canal of or Nahr Saxes, now called Husseini, at tire extremity of which is the large ani populous town of Kerbela, or Meshed Hussein, is a very line one, though more ancient than the clays of Alexander, and supposed at one time to have been connected with the Bahr Nejiff. Of the canal of Isa, which is said to nave commenced at Is, the modern Hit, and to have terminated at Opis, con necting the Euphrates and Tigris, not a trace now re mains. The only canal at present cownumicating with the two rivers, is called the Hie. It cuts the Jezrra ex half way between 13usSOra and Bagdad, and in spring is navigable for large boats.