tree; groves of which are very numerous in the lower course. Succulent plants are common; mesembryanthemums and asters clothe the great plain of Shinar; the broad pools of water are covered with water-lilies and ranunculuses, and are bordered with a luxuriant margin of reeds and rushes. Groves of tamarisks and acacias grow on the banks, and a species of poplar, with willow-like leaves, (gharah,) is abundant; of this kind may have been the " willows" (garav, y) on which the captives of Israel hanged their harps, though osiers and other species of the willow are also numerous.

The

The zoology of this region has not been very distinctly observed. The lion stalks over the plain, and Sir Robert Ker Porter was startled by the sight of two or three of these lordly animals, standing on the very summit of the Birs Nimroud. Bears, wolves, foxes, lynxes, and other beasts of temperate regions, inhabit the mountains, and in the southern plains, the leopard, the hunting tiger, the hyæna, and the jackal pursue their prey. Herds of fallow deer inhabit some parts of the region, and the desert plains are ranged by gazelles and wild asses. elegant jerboa, a creature somewhat like a rabbit, but with the motions of the kangaroo, leaps and burrows in the level tracts. The disproportion between its fore and hind limbs is very remarkable. Various breeds of domestic animals, the camel, the horse, the ass, the ox, the sheep, and the goat are cultivated. Otters are found both in the Euphrates and the Tigris. The bustard scours the lofty table-lands at the heads of these rivers, as did the ostrich in ancient times; the latter is not now known in Asia. Pheasants,

NATURAL HISTORY.

79

partridges and quails are numerous, as are vultures, hawks and owls. Many of the smaller birds familiar to Europe are common to these regions, as the thrush, lark, nightingale, and most of the finches; some species of kingfishers, of brilliant plumage, are peculiar to the river. Of the fishes and insects,

we know but little, except that at the mouth of the Euphrates, there is a very curious species of fish, (Lophius,) analogous to our own fishing-frog, which is able to leave the water, and crawl about for many hours upon the land; this it is enabled to do by the length of the bones of its pectoral and ventral fins, and by the peculiar structure of its gills, which can

long retain the moisture necessary for respiration. Reptiles of many repulsive forms and venomous natures are particularly abundant in the heaps of ruins that strew the plain of Shinar, as has been already noticed.

Here we bring to a close our account of this renowned river, and the region through which it flows. We have sketched the picture of its ancient, and that of its modern condition. Such it was once; such it is now; and we cannot conclude with more forcible words than those in which a valuable writer thus sums up the contrast between the scene which its rolling tide once witnessed, and that which it witnesses now.

"From palaces converted into broken hills; from streets to long lines of heaps; from the throne of the world to sitting in the dust; from the hum of mighty Babylon to the death-like silence that rests upon the grave to which it is brought down; from the great store-house of the world, where treasures were gathered from every quarter, and the prisonhouse of the captive Jews, where, not loosed to return homewards, they served in a hard bondage, to Babylon the spoil of many nations, itself taken from thence and nothing left; from a vast metropolis, the palace of palaces, and the glory of kingdoms, whither multitudes ever flowed, to a dreaded and shunned spot, not inhabited nor dwelt in from generation to generation, where even the Arabian, though the son of the desert, pitches not his tent, and where the shepherds make not their folds;-from the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places, to the taking away of brick, and to an uncovered naked

ness; from making the earth to tremble, and shaking kingdoms, to being cast out of the grave like an abominable branch; from the many nations, and great kings from the coasts of the earth, that have so often come up against Babylon, to the workmen that still cast her up as heaps, and add to the number of pools in her ruins; from the immense artificial lake, many miles in circumference, by means of which the annual rising of the Euphrates was regulated and restrained, to these pools of water, a few yards round, dug by the workmen, and filled by the river; from the first and greatest of temples, to a burnt mountain desolate for ever; from the golden image, forty feet in height, which stood on the top of the temple of Belus, to all the graven images of her gods, that are broken unto the ground, and mingled with the dust; from the splendid and luxurious festivals of Babylonian monarchs, the noise of the vials, the pomp of Belshazzar's feast, and the godless revelry of a thousand lords, drinking out of the golden vessels that had been taken from Zion, to the cry of wild beasts, the creeping of doleful creatures, of which their desolate houses and pleasant palaces are full, the nestling of owls in cavities, the dancing of wild goats on the ruinous mound, as on a rock, and the dwelling-place of dragons, and of venomous reptiles; from arch upon arch, and terrace upon terrace, till the hanging gardens of Babylon rose like a mountain, down to the stones of the pit, now disclosed to view; from the palaces of princes, who sat on the mount of the congregation, and thought in the pride of their heart to exalt themselves above the stars of God, to heaps cut down to the ground, perforated as

the raiment of those that are slain, and as a carcase trodden under feet; from the broad walls of Babylon, in all their height, as Cyrus camped against them round about, seeking in vain a single point where congregated nations could scale the walls or force an opening, to the untraceable spot on which they stood, where there is nothing left to turn aside, or impede in their course, the worms that cover it; and, finally, from Babylon the great, the wonder of the world, to fallen Babylon, the astonishment of all who go by it; in extremes like these, whatever changes they involve, and by whatever instrumentality they may have been wrought out, there is not to this hour, in this most marvellous history of Babylon, a single fact that may not most appropriately be ranked under a prediction, and that does not tally entirely with its express and precise fulfilment; while at the same time they all united show, as may now be seen, reading the judgments to the very letter, and looking to the facts as they are, the destruction which has come from the Almighty upon Babylon."*

*

Keith's Evidence of Prophecy, 359, (35th Edition).