stream passes within a few miles of the source of the Tigris below Lake
Goljik, and forces a way through the mountains towards the south,
pursuing a tortuous course, but still seeming as if it intended
ultimately to mingle its waters with those of the Mediterranean. It is
not till about Balis, in lat. 36 deg., that this intention appears to be
finally relinquished, and the convergence of the two streams begins. The
Euphrates at first flows nearly due east, but soon takes a course which
is, with few and unimportant deflections, about south-east, as far as
Suk-es-Sheioukh, after which it runs a little north of east to Kurnah.
The Tigris from Til to Mosul pursues also a south-easterly course, and
draws but a very little nearer to the Euphrates. From Mosul, however,
to Samarah, its course is only a point east of south; and though, after
that, for some miles it flows off to the east, yet resuming, a little
below the thirty-fourth parallel, its southerly direction, it is brought
about Baghdad within twenty miles of the sister stream. From this point
there is again a divergence. The course of the Euphrates, which from
Hit to the mounds of Mohammed (long. 44 deg.) had been E.S.E., becomes
much more southerly, while that of the Tigris--which, as we have seen,
was for awhile due south--becomes once more only slightly south of east,
till near Serut, where the distance between the rivers has increased
from twenty to a hundred miles. After passing respectively Serut and El
Khitr, the two streams converge rapidly. The flow of the Euphrates is
at first E. S. E., and then a little north of east to Kurnah, while that
of the Tigris is S.S.E. to the same point. The lines of the streams in
this last portion of their course, together with that which may be drawn
across from stream to stream, form nearly an equilateral triangle, the
distance being respectively 104, 110, and 115 miles. So rapid is the
final convergence of the two great rivers.

The Tigris and Euphrates are both streams of the first order. The