on the authority of Volney's Travels (Vol. 11. p. 27) and Drummond's Travels in Syria (p. 205), at a spring near Iskendrun or Alexandretta ('Aλegávôpeia κarà "Iooov), designated by sailors as Jacob's Well, has not been recovered. There is no doubt, from the distances given by Xenophon, that it lay half-way between Alexandria and Rhosus or Rhossus, this latter site is now called Arsus; and although I visited and explored the ruins there, unfortunately the interval between it and Alexandria was passed over in a boat.

The historian makes no mention of the pass of Beilan in Amanus which the army must next have traversed, in passing from the sea-coast into the interior; and his silence upon this, and upon the lake of Antioch, have led to many conjectures among his commentators; but there is every reason, from the geological features of the country, to believe that, in respect of the lake of Antioch, there has been little change since the earliest historical times.

From Myriandrus Cyrus made twenty parasangs in four days, and came to the river Chalus: ἐπὶ τὸν Χάλον ποταμὸν, ὄντα τὸ εὖρος πλέθρου, πλήρη δ' ἰχθύων μεγάλων και πραέων, οὓς οἱ Σύροι θεοὺς ἐνόμιζον. This river, not otherwise noticed by antiquity, has been generally and correctly identified by geographers with the Kouiet or river of Aleppo. But an objection was found by Foster (Geo. Diss. in Spelman's Trans.) to this identification, founded on a statement of Rauwolf (Travels by J. Ray, Part 1. c. 8), that there is a scarcity of fish at Aleppo. This must have been owing to idleness on the part of the Aleppines in Rauwolf's time; for fish abound, to my own experience, in the Kouiet, and Colonel Chesney and ourselves found one of its chief tributaries in the mountains north of Aleppo, designated as the Baloklu-su, or fishriver. The Syrian worship of fish, as noticed by Xenophon, and long kept up at Hierapolis, is still preserved, to a small degree, in the reverence paid to the fish in the pond of Abraham's Mosque, Birket el Ibrahim el Khalil, the lake of Abraham the beloved, and the Kaλippón, or beautiful fountain of the Greeks, at Urfah.

Thirty more parasangs, in five days, brought the army to the source of the river Daradax: ἐπὶ τὰς πηγὰς τοῦ Δαράδακος ποταμοῦ, οὗ τὸ εὖρος πλέθρου. Ἐνταῦθα ἦσαν τὰ Βελέσιος βασίλεια, τοῦ Συρίας ἄρξαντος, καὶ παράδεισος πάνυ μέγας καὶ καλὸς, ἔχων πάντα ὅσα ὧραι púovo. The distance travelled from the Chalus, and the tradition of the palace of Belesis, at Balis on the Euphrates, tend

strongly to identify the two spots. The ruins of Balis, also the Barbalissus, and Barbarissus of the Romans, are situated in N. lat. 36° 1' 21", E. long. 38° 7′ 10′′, and consist chiefly of a large crumbling edifice, apparently belonging to the period of the Roman dominion. The bed of a canal, in parts filled with water, and about 100 yards in width, is still extant, which, being drawn from the Euphrates some distance to the north, passed immediately before the palace, separating it from the extensive and fertile plain which appears to have formerly composed the park of the Syrian satraps, and which still abounds in boars, francolin, and game of various description.

That Xenophon describes this canal under the name of Daradax is not only evidenced by the distances given, but also by the fact that he, in another place, describes in a similar manner the river Mascá at Corsote, which was also a derivative of exactly the same character; also by the circumstance of its being 100 feet wide at its source-a peculiarity which, as Major Rennell has remarked, can scarcely belong to a spring in such a country, and which can only apply to the origin of the canal, at which point the army appears first to have come down on the Euphrates. It may be further remarked, that Colonel Chesney and the author made exploratory excursions in the neighbourhood of the ruined palace of Belesis, in search of any possible sources or streams, as the fountain of Fay, mentioned by Major Rennell, but without success. The silence of the historian with regard to the Euphrates is puzzling; but it appears almost to be intentional, as it was on coming to that river that Cyrus had promised, at Tarsus, that if he did not find Abrocomas, the general of Artaxerxes there, he would consider what next was to be done. It may also be remarked that the journey across the desert from Iskendrun, supposing it to have passed by some palace of the Syrian satrap, situated in that desert, at sources not at present known, must still have presented great difficulties to an army; and that the great object, when south of the Kouiet and Sajur rivers, is always to reach the Euphrates as soon as possible, as in this case also the army of Cyrus was obliged to follow its banks closely all the way from Thapsacus to Babylonia.

From hence (Balis), says the historian, égeλavveι σтalμoùs тpeîs, παρασάγγας πεντεκαίδεκα ἐπὶ τὸν Εὐφράτην ποταμὸν, ὄντα τὸ εὖρος τεττάρων σαδίων· καὶ πόλις αὐτόθι ᾠκειτο, μεγάλη καὶ εὐδαίμων, Θάψακος ὀνόματι. Thapsacus has been identified by Foster with the Tiphsah of

Strabo (p. 213) says, ka v

Scripture (1 Kings iv. 24). (Θάψακον) ἦν τὸ ζεῦγμα τοῦ Εὐφράτου τὸ παλαῖον, and as Abrocomas appears to have fled before Cyrus, and to have destroyed the bridge, so Darius retreated by the same pass before Alexander; and the Macedonian was obliged to construct a double bridge, which he did, according to Strabo (xvI. p. 741), by transporting boats from Phoenicia and Cyprus. The original passage of Strabo, Ἅ κομισθέντα εἰς Θάψακον, σταδίοις ἑπτὰ εἶτα τῷ ποταμῷ κατακομισθῆναι μέχρι Βαβυλῶνος, is open to many doubts, as he gives only seven stadia between Phoenicia and Thapsacus.

It appears that Thapsacus was known to the Syrians by the name of Turmeda, for Stephanus (under 'Aμpíñoλis) says, čσti kai πόλις Συρίας πρὸς τῷ Εὐφράτῃ, κτίσμα Σελεύκου, καλεῖται δὲ ὑπὸ Σύρων Toúpμeda, and we have the authority of Pliny for the identity of Amphipolis (the name it obtained after the death of Alexander) and Thapsacus, for he says (v. c. 24), Thapsacum quondam, nunc Amphipolis.

At a point corresponding by the survey of the Euphrates with the distances travelled by Cyrus, there is a ford celebrated among the Arabs as the ford of the "Anaidi," or of the Bedwins, and the same as that at which Suleïman (Suleyman) lost his life. It is the more remarkable as being the only ford for a distance of several hundred miles in this part of the river; and it is only practicable at certain seasons, and that not always at the same season. The Euphrates and Tigris steamers passed the ford in the month of June 1836, without difficulty; but the steamers Nitocris and Nimrod in passing over in the month of October 1841, found only twenty inches of water, and were detained till March of the ensuing year.

We found the remains of a causeway on both banks opposite to the ford; and not far from some ruins, now called Al-Hammam, or the Baths, on the right bank, were a low series of mounds, and fragments designated as Suriyeh by the natives, and evidently the same as the Sura of Ptolemy and the Augustan Tables, which have preserved a great road from Palmyra, passing through the marble city of Resepha now Reseph, and Sura, to Callinicus, now Rakkah, and to Charræ (Edessa), &c. It was also the Flavia firma Sura of the Notitia Imperii Orientalis; but whether the same as Thapsacus it is difficult to say, although the circumstances of position appear to render it very probable, and there is also a close analogy between the Sur of Ptolemy and

the Tur-meda of Stephanus, the transition from the Hebrew and Syriac Sur to Tur being constant; as, for example, Tyre was, by Hebrews, Syrians, and Chaldeans, alike called Sur (Bochart, Geo. Sac., p. 341), and Assur became the Atur and and Aturia of the Romans. (Dion Cassius, LXVIII. c. 26.) Sur signifies a rock or mountain, and the Sur of Mesopotamia are to this day called by the Arabs Jebel Tur, and hence the Roman Taurus. The Arabs also call Mount Sinai (Researches in Assyria, &c. p. 18.)

طرو

TUR.

Two distinguished geographers, Major RENNELL and D'ANVILLE were induced, from ignorance in regard to the positioning of this ford of the Euphrates, and from a wish to identify Thapsacus with Deïr, a small Arab town on the same river, to suppose that Xenophon had, by inadvertence, transposed distances in this portion of his work, and recorded as the distance from Daradax to Thapsacus what ought to have been from Thapsacus to the Araxes, and, vice versa, from Thapsacus to the Araxes what ought to have been from Thapsacus to the Daradax; but actual exploration of these interesting and remarkable countries has shown that there is no necessity for such forced interpretations, and that in this, as in other cases, the Athenian historian has preserved his accustomed accuracy. (D'Anville, Euphrate et Tigre, p. 23. Rennell, 1. c. p. 61.)

From Thapsacus Cyrus advanced through Syria, for so that part of Mesopotamia which lay above the Scenite Arabs was often called; and having in nine days march made fifty parasangs, came to the river Araxes. By the distance here given, there appears every reason to believe, as has been admitted by previous commentators, that the Araxes of Xenophon is the same as the El-Khabúr of the Arabs and of existing geography, and the 'Aßóppas of Strabo (xvi. p. 514) and Procopius, the Xaßopas of Ptolemy, Aßápas of Zosimus (III. c. 12), Aßoupas of Isidore of Charax (p. 4. Hudson, Geo. Minor.), and Aboras of Ammianus Marcellinus (XXIII. c. 11). There are also many reasons for believing that this river is the same as the Habor of the Scriptures. (1 Chron. v. 26; 2 Kings xvii. 6, and xviii. 11.)

If, however, the Carchemish of Scripture (Jeremiah xlvi. 22; Isaiah x. 9) were the same as the Kipknotov of Procopius (Bell. Pers. XI. c. 5), and the Cercusium or Circesium of the Romans, embellished by Diocletian, and so long a limitrophal city, and now represented by the ruins which arise out of the Arab village

of Kerkisiyeh, (and which, from the circumstances of position, the analogy of name, the statements of Benjamin of Tudela, Karkesia, olim Carcemis dicta, in ripa Euphratis posita, and of the learned Bochart, Cercusium viri docti putant esse . Carcemis urbem ad Euphratem (Geog. Sac. Phaleg. iv. 21. p. 289) appears very probable;) it is then singular that it should have obtained no notice from Xenophon, who only describes the neighbourhood as characterized by many villages, full of corn and wine.

The country beyond the Araxes, Xenophon describes as Arabia, probably at once from its desert character, and from its being the abode only of Nomade Arabs. The concise and beautiful description given by the author of these wildernesses is familiar to every reader of travel, as applied, and often very unappropriately, to districts presenting very different features. Ἐν τούτῳ δὲ τῷ τόπῳ ἦν μὲν ἡ γῆ πεδίον ἅπαν ὁμαλὸν ὥσπερ θάλαττα, ἀψινθίου δὲ πλῆρες. εἰ δέ τι καὶ ἄλλο ἐνὴν ὕλης ἢ καλάμου, ἅπαντα ἦσαν εὐώδη ὥσπερ ἀρώματα· δένδρον δ ̓ οὐδὲν ἐνῆν. Θηρία δὲ πλεῖστοι μὲν οἱ ἄγριοι ὄνοι, οὐκ ὀλίγαι δὲ στρουθοὶ αἱ μεγάλαι· ἐνῆσαν δὲ καὶ ὠτίδες καὶ δορκάδες. Without being hypercritical and yet to be just, the expression "level as the sea" must be looked upon as somewhat more than the simple fact, but the wormwood (different species of Artemisia,) is certainly the most characteristic plant of the wilderness. Ostriches are now scarcely to be met with, but the wild ass or horse is still known to the Arabs of the country. Bustards are common, and the term dopkádes should be translated gazelles, (ghazal,) and not roe-deer, as is generally done. Naturalists have long admitted the Antilope dorcas as the specific name for the gazelle.

In marching through this country, they came ènì Tòv Maσκâv ποταμὸν, τὸ εὖρος πλεθριαῖον. Ἐνταῦθα ἦν πόλις ἐρήμη, μεγάλη, ὄνομα δὲ αὐτῇ Κορσωτή· περιεῤῥειτο δε αὕτη ὑπὸ τοῦ Μασκα κύκλῳ. At a distance corresponding to that which is here given by the historian, and in N. lat. 34° 29′ 4′′, E. long. 40° 59′ 15′′, the Euphrates expedition found a canal, still full of water, and similar to that observed at Balis, which intercepted an extraordinary curve of the river, and which was known to the Arabs by the name of Musah. This plain which was thus peninsulated, and in which Corsote, according to our historian, was situated, did not display any ruins; but there are many fragments of ancient times which crown the summit of cliffs that overlook to the north-east the river Masca and the plain beyond. These ruins are at present designated as Erzi, which appears to be a corruption of Ezrah, and this reminds us of the