'The Expedition for the survey of the rivers Euphrates and Tigris, carried on by order of the British government, in the years 1835, 1836, and 1837; preceded by geographical and historical notices of the regions situated between the rivers Nile and Indus. In four volumes. With fourteen maps and charts, and embellished with ninety-seven plates, besides numerous wood-cuts. Volume the first.' [‎57] (104/905)

CHAP. III.] EUPHRATES TO MUSSEYIB AND BABEL.
57
and proceeds tlirough. the date-groves surrounding this place, towards mmh.
across a bare country, onwards to Hillah, which is 91 miles
by water, or 611 miles direct S. 33° E. from Felujah. The
stream, in this part of its course, has an average breadth of
200 yards, with an ordinary depth of 15 feet, and a current
of barely two and a half knots per hour in the season of
floods, when there are 15 low islands, some of them covered
with jungle. The town at which we have now arrived isHiiiah.
built on a part of Babylon, and chiefly with materials obtained
from its ruins ; it contained in 1831, the time of my first
visit, about 10,000 inhabitants, whose dwellings are prin
cipally on the right bank ; the line of houses forming an
obtuse angle almost midway between the Mujellibeh and the
still more celebrated Birs Nimrud.
The Willow Boat of Babylon.—Herod., Lib. I., c. 194.
Soon after passing the ruins of Babel the river begins to Contraction
assume that appearance which may have caused Herodotus to beiowBlbyion.
say, that it differs from all other great streams, by becoming
smaller towards the lower, than in the higher part of its
course. The numerous canals drawn from each side, at short
intervals from each other, in order to irrigate the fields, as well
as the date-groves and pomegranate-gardens, near the villages
here covering both banks, produce a change in the appear
ance of the country, which, although very gradual, becomes
sufliciently evident, especially after passing the derivation
called Yusufiyah, which takes place 1 at one mile and a half
above Diwaniyah, a respectable Arab town, of about 1200
houses, situate on the left bank. About 18-g- miles below, Canal of Old
another derivation, forming the canal of Old Lamlum, takes
place, and the river rather decreases from hence to the entrance
1 This is on the eastern side of the Euphrates, and joins the Lamlum branch,
previous to the junction of the latter with the main branch near EI Karayem.
VOL. I. 1