'Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society, from September 1850 to June 1852. Edited by the Secretary. Volume X.' [‎117] (250/458)

MEMOIR ON THE « TIGRIS.”
117
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Anabasis, though the recognition may be of little extra value. Between
it and the Tigris, then occupying its old bed contiguous to Harbeh and
’Akbard, there lay a valuable tract of country, covered as with a net by
the vinous branches that emanated from the great artery, which, wide
rapid, and deep, was its defensive bulwark also from without in time of
war.* * & sucl1 m a g nitude was the design, that rivers—-the Atheim and
the DiyAleh—were absorbed in the canal itself ;f the former even being
entirely arrested in the hills to allow of the broad and deep valley it
occupied here beseeting the province being filled up, so as to carry the
canal above the face of the adjoining country.^ A conduit dispen
sing such copious draughts, and also impassable by an enemy except at
the bridges, must have been eminently navigable in itself, and distant
from the Tigris, as it flowed in the early ages, but nine miles, which
tract, by a glance at the map, will be seen was crossed by its ducts
also, offered the most eligible situation for a mart such as Opis is
represented to have been. The elevated rocky ridge crossing the
country here would not permit vessels, as has been shewn, to proceed
to a closer proximity with the canal, neither could the canal, to reap
the full benefit of the elevated soil, be cut so as to approach nearer to
the Tigris by a single mile, where nature has placed the insuperable bar
to further navigation, without sacrificing advantages the artificial
stream was especially designed for. The position of Manjur, which I
erudite Dean of Westminster is of little use, owing to ignorance of locality at the period it
was written, and the same may be said of those parts of Rennell’s “ Expedition of Cyrus,” that
treat of this subject, from the like cause. It is to be regretted, indeed, by the lovers of geo
graphical science that these two able men could not possibly have visited every locality they
have attempted to unravel, for the masterly style in which they have handled the weapons
they were provided with, could not then fail of yielding great results. D'Anvelle, too, has
arduously e ndeavoured to rescue the early foot.steps of our raee from the mist that has hidden
them, but his materials unfortunately were less clear than those of his successors; and, indeed,
in attempting to identify the Toruadotus of Pliny he has, in some measure, led his followers
astray, through the mis-caught sound of the Arab name ’Alheirn by the unpractised ear of the
quaint old Tavernier, who has marked it in his second voyage as the Odoine of Chaldea.
Bookii. chap. vii. 83. And speaking of Tavernier,—I may notice another error which is not
of so innocent a nature, for in describing a dam across the Tigris in page 82 of the English
translation of the same book, he states it to be 20 fathoms steep. Either this is an egregious
error ofthe translator, or an egregious exaggeration in the writer The lowest of the four classes into which East India Company civil servants were divided. A Writer’s duties originally consisted mostly of copying documents and book-keeping. , though the spot he alludes
to is sufficiently alarming in the descent upon rafts. The tradition he appends to it is, how
ever, corroborative of the existence of such works in the times of the Kaianian Monarchs of
Persia. By subsequent reference to the French original I find it is an error of translation.
* See Heraclins’ Campaigns. He abandoned his designs upon Ctesiphon from inability to
cross the Arba or Narban, the Nahrwan ofthe country, and the name of that portion of the
Katul-al-Kesrawi below the Diykleh river.—Vide “ Narrative of Survey of Nahrwan,” 1847.
t The first in the Arab name of the stream that has been so long confounded with the
Phuskus. The last is the Gyndes of antiquity (Herod .), and the Tamerra and Holwafi of
die Arab geographers.
X “ Bandi Atheim.”—See “ Narrative of Survey of Katul and Nahrwan, 1849.”