. The dawn of civilization: Egypt and Chaldaea . GIGANTIC CHALDEAN THE LAND RECLAIMED FROM THE WATERS. 553 parallel to the In proportion as the canal proceeds southward theground sinks still lower, and becomes saturated with the overflowing waters,until, the banks gradually disappearing, the whole neighbourhood is convertedinto a morass. The Euphrates and its branches do not at all times succeed inreaching the sea :2 they are lost for the most part in vast lagoons to which thetide comes up, and in its ebb bears their waters away with it. Eeeds growthere luxuriantly in enorm
. The dawn of civilization: Egypt and Chaldaea . GIGANTIC CHALDEAN THE LAND RECLAIMED FROM THE WATERS. 553 parallel to the In proportion as the canal proceeds southward theground sinks still lower, and becomes saturated with the overflowing waters,until, the banks gradually disappearing, the whole neighbourhood is convertedinto a morass. The Euphrates and its branches do not at all times succeed inreaching the sea :2 they are lost for the most part in vast lagoons to which thetide comes up, and in its ebb bears their waters away with it. Eeeds growthere luxuriantly in enormous beds, and reach sometimes a height of from. THE MARSHES ABOUT THE CONFLUENCE OF THE KEIiKHA AND TIGRIS/ thirteen to sixteen feet ; bauks of black and putrid mud emerge amidst thegreen growth, and give off deadly emanations. Winter is scarcely felt here :snow is unknown, hoar-frost is rarely seen, but sometimes in the morning athin film of ice covers the marshes, to disappear under the first rays of For six weeks in November and December there is much rain : afterthis period there are only occasional showers, occurring at longer and longer 1 The arm of the Euphrates which skirts the chain in this way is called Pallacopas, or, accordingto others, Pallacottas (ArpiAN, Bel. civ., lib. ii. 153, Didots edition) : this form, if it is authentic,would allow us to identify the canal mentioned by classical writers with the Nar-Pallukat of theBabylonian inscriptions (Delattre, Les Travaux Hydrauliques en Bàbylonie, p. 47). 2 Classical writers mention this fact more than once ; for instance, Arrian (Anabasis, vii. 7) in thetime of
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookidd, booksubjectcivilization
