numerous other branch streams from the Tigris flow in upon the other;
but still the Euphrates never recovers itself entirely, nor even
approaches in its later course to the standard of its earlier greatness.
The channel from Kurnah to El Khitr was found by Colonel Chesney to have
an average width of only 200 yards, and a depth of about 18 or 19 feet,
which implies a body of water far inferior to that carried between the
junction with the Khabour and Hit. More recently, the decline of the
stream in its latter course has been found to be even greater. Neglect
of the banks has allowed the river to spread itself more and more widely
over the land: and it is said that, except in the flood time, very
little of the Euphrates water reaches the sea. Nor is this an
unprecedented or very unusual state of things. From the circumstance
(probably) that it has been formed by the deposits of streams flowing
from the east as well as from the north, the lower Mesopotamian plain
slopes not only to the south, but to the west. The Euphrates, which has
low banks, is hence at all times inclined to leave its bed, and to flow
off to the right, where large tracts are below its ordinary level. Over
these it spreads itself, forming the well-known "Chaldaean marshes,"
which absorb the chief proportion of the water that flows into them, and
in which the "great river" seems at various times to have wholly, or
almost wholly, lost itself. No such misfortune can befall the Tigris,
which runs in a deep bed, and seldom varies its channel, offering a
strong contrast to the sister stream.

Frequent allusion has been made, in the course of this description of
the Tigris and Euphrates, to the fact of their having each a flood
season. Herodotus is scarcely correct when he says that in Babylonia
"the river does not, as in Egypt, overflow the corn-lands of its own
accord, but is spread over them by the help of engines." Both the
Tigris and Euphrates rise many feet each spring, and overflow their