'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.' [‎267] (334/905)

CHAP. XII.]
PISON AND GIHON.
267
countries which were inhabited by tribes having little inter
course with the Jews; and thus their connexion with the site
of Paradise may, subsequently to the time of Moses, have ceased
to be remembered.
Under such discouraging circumstances, any attempt to Havikb and
elucidate the geography of Eden might have been deemed (ju8h '
hopeless, if it were not that many indications afforded by the
character and natural productions of the country presented
themselves to me during the progress of my rather extensive
researches in that part of the world. From these, and from
the fact that the sources of the Euphrates and Tigris, and of
two other great rivers, exist within a very circumscribed space
in Armenia, I have been led to infer that the rivers known
by the comparatively modern names of Halys and Araxes, are
those which, in the book of Genesis, have the names of Pison
and Gihon; and that the country within the former is the
land of Havilah, whilst that which borders upon the latter is
the still more remarkable territory of Gush.
Some of the indications alluded to will be found in the
description already given of the four rivers themselves, in the
first, second, and third chapters; and the reader is referred to
what follows for other corroborations of the hypothesis which
has been adopted respecting the locality of the terrestrial
Paradise, as a part of the more extensive territory of Eden.
According to the tradition fondly cherished in the wild Traditional
valleys of Central Armenia, the tract allotted to our first 81te of Eden "
parents,—or, as the Hebrew expresses it, the Paradise in
Eden towards the east, 1 included the northern division of the
pashalik of Musul, and it extended from this part of Assyria
to some little distance north of Erz-Rum: its western extre
mity was in the vicinity of Tokat, towards the Halys, whilst
the eastern boundary included some portion of the district
beyond lake Van. This extensive and still fertile tract of
country comprehends, as will be presently seen, the early
settlements of two of the branches descended from Noah
It coincides nearly with that which originally constituted the
principal part of Greater and Lesser Armenia; and within its
1 Genesis ii. 8.
2 M 2