'The Expedition for the survey of the rivers Euphrates and Tigris, carried on by order of the British government, in the years 1835, 1836, and 1837; preceded by geographical and historical notices of the regions situated between the rivers Nile and Indus. In four volumes. With fourteen maps and charts, and embellished with ninety-seven plates, besides numerous wood-cuts. Volume the first.' [‎270] (337/905)

watered.
270 COUNTRY ABOUT ARARAT. [CHAP. XII.
embracing, as their diverging streams flow onwards, a wider
extent of territory, emblematical of the diffusion of mankind
from the same common spot in the centre of the ancient
world.
Armenia well AH can appreciate the advantages of navigable rivers, and
the blessings of an abundant supply of water; but those only
who have travelled over a blighted wilderness, exposed to the
scorching rays of a noon-day sun, tortured with the appre
hension of missing the still distant well, can feel in all its
force, how much the fitness of any territory to be the abode
of man in a state of bliss must depend on the abundance of
its waters. It is not, therefore, at all surprising that tradi
tion should have assigned, as the site of the earthly paradise,
the fertile region watered by the numerous affluents of the
Halys, Araxes, Tigris, and Euphrates; especially since this
tract, owing to the variety of its surface, climate, and tem
perature, is adapted for the growth of almost every tree that
is pleasant to the sight and good for food. 1
This also was the seat of what may be considered the
second paradise, and the centre of post-diluvian civilization; 2
having been the first portion of the new world which
emerged from the deluge; when, after the most awful
catastrophe ever connected with the history of mankind,
Armenia was peopled for the second time.
In describing the countries about the sources of the four
rivers, it will be convenient to set out from the Jaghi Tagh
or Mountain of Flowers, (so called by the Armenians "from
the great beauty of its valleys,) on whose side, which forms
one of the slopes of Ararat, the Murad branch of the
Euphrates 3 has its rise. Not far from thence is the plain
of Erz-Rum, whose extreme length is about 40 miles, from
S.W. to N.E., along the northern branch, and whose greatest
breadth is nearly 20 miles, from N.W. to S.E.; its elevation
Genesis ii. 9.
* This region occupies the country between the Caucasus and Tarabuziin
and at one time it was called Ethiopia.-Fallmayer's Geschichte des Byzan-
tmischen Kaiserthums, p. 3. y
The Arsanias of Pliny, lib. V., cap. xxiv.
The Jaghi
Tagh.