Belik and the Khabour. But as yet in this work no account has been given
of a number of important rivers in the extreme east and the extreme
west, on which the fertility, and so the prosperity, of the Empire very
greatly depended. It is proposed in the present place to supply this
deficiency.

The principle rivers of the extreme east were the Choaspes, or modern
Kerkhah, the Pasitigris or Eulseus, now the Kuran, the Hedyphon or
Hedypnus, now the Jerahi, and the Oroatis, at present the Tab or
Hindyan. Of these, the Oroatis, which is the most eastern, belongs
perhaps more to Persia than to Babylon; but its lower course probably
fell within the Susianian territory. It rises in the mountains between
Shiraz and Persepolis, about lat. 29° 45', long. 52° 35' E.; and flows
towards the Persian Gulf with a course which is north-west to Failiyun,
then nearly W. to Zehitun, after which it becomes somewhat south of west
to Hindyan, and then S.W. by S. to the sea. The length of the stream,
without counting lesser windings, is 200 miles; its width at Hindyan,
sixteen miles above its mouth, is eighty yards, and to this distance it
is navigable for boats of twenty tons burthen. At first its waters are
pure and sweet, but they gradually become corrupted, and at Hindyan they
are so brackish as not to be fit for use. The Jerahi rises from several
sources in the Kuh Margun, a lofty and precipitous range, forming the
continuation of the chain of Zagros. about long. 50° to 51°, and lat.
31° 30'. These head-streams have a general direction from N.E. to S.W.
The principal of them is the Kurdistan river, which rises about fifty
miles to the north-east of Babahan and flowing south-west to that point,
then bends round to the north, and runs north-west nearly to the fort
of Mungasht, where it resumes its original direction, and receiving from
the north-east the Abi Zard, or "Yellow River"--a delightful stream of
the coldest and purest water possible--becomes known as the Jerahi, and