It has generally, though erroneously, been supposed, that the Shat-ool-Arab, (the combined stream of the Eu phrates and Tigris,) enters the Persian Gulf by a variety of mouths. This mistake has probably arisen from the ig norance of navigators, about the rivers of Susiana, con cluding that the seven channels which issue from the Delta into the sea, at no great distance from each other, were derived from the Shat-ool-Arab, the river with which they were chiefly acquainted. These channels, or khores, as they are called in Mr Cluer's map, pre serve the following order: Cossisa Bouny, Bamishere, Karoon, Seluge, Mohilla, Goban, and Delia Bona. If it be proved that the Bamishere, the next in succession, as well as in magnitude, to the Cossisa Bouny, or Shat ool-Arab, is not in the least augmented by the waters of the latter, clearly none of the others can; for the only means of communication is by the Hafar cut. Now, the Bamishere is the main stream of the Karoon. This river, after its confluence with the Abzal at Bundikeil, con tains perhaps a greater body of water than either the Euphrates or Tigris separately. This stream, on reach ing Sabla; a ruined village 30 miles east of Bussora, dis •,tnites; the largest branch called Hafar, after a course of fourteen or fifteen miles, again separates. The great est portion of waters flowing obliquely to the east, con stitute the Bamishere, and the rest enter the Shat-yd Arab, through an artificial cut, thlee miles long. This cut is the only communication which the Shat-ool-Arab has with the six eastern channels; and as the waters of the Karoon constantly flow through it into that river, not those of the Shat-ool-Arab into the Karoon, it is evident that neither the Bamishere, nor the other K bores, are derived from the combined stream of the Euphrates and Tigris, which, on approaching the Gulf, receives the mime of the Cossisa Bouny.
The Euphrates, according to Arrian and Strabo, en tered the Persian Gulf by a separate channel, afterwards obstructed and turned by the citizens of Orchoe. This opinion has been acquiesced in by D'Anville. Vincent, however, thinks this erroneous, and tries to prove that the Pallacopas canal passing near the city of Orchoe, and entering the gulf in the Khore Abdallah, was mis taken by the ancients for the mouth of the Euphrates.
The five remaining channels are ramifications of the Karoon, which takes an easterly direction towards the Delta of Goban, on separating from the main stream of the Sabla. Before Sheikh Solyman raised his bond, or embankment, at Sabla, the Bamishete was the channel usually navigated by ships bound to Bussora. They passed through the Hafar cut, which is at least 150 yards wide, and, at high water, deep enough to admit a vessel of any size.
Nearchus, on his voyage from the Indus to the Eu phrates, entering the channel called by Arrian, Pasiti gris, now known by the name of the Karoon, conducted his fleet up to Susa, and thence descending with a divi sion of his ships through the Hafar cut, which thus ap pears to be of greater antiquity than the days of Alex der, passed into the Shat-ool-Arab. Some ships, com manded by Nearchus in person, sailed up the Euphrates as far as Babylon. At Babylon the death of Alexander terminated the further prosecution of an enterprise, which extended to the circumnavigation of Arabia, up the Red Sea to Suez. A plan worthy of the compre hensive genius of the illustrious projector of a voyage, which must be considered as the most interesting in the world, at the time of its accomplishment, opening a communication with Europe and the most distant re gions of Asia, and, as Dr Vincent observes, the source and origin of the Portuguese discoveries, and the pri mary cause, however remote, of the British establish ments in India.
From its source, the Euphrates performs a course of about 1400 miles to its confluence with the 'Tigris at Korna, which, estimating at the distance of 130 miles from the Persian Gulf, the waters of the Euphrates con sequently flow upwards of 1500 miles in reaching the sea.
See Kinncir's Geographical Memoir of the Persian Empire, passim, and the accompanying Map; Memoire sur l'Euphrate et le Tigre par D'Anville ; Vincent's Voyage of Nearchus, and Arrian's Hist. by Gronovius. (w. •.)