446 A HISTORY OF PERSIA. cedented rapidity upon the sea.* The original site of Charax was believed by Pliny to be only two thousand paces distant from the shore, but, in consequence of the rapid accumulation of mud from the great river, Charax came in the course of time to stand fifty miles from the sea-shore. "If we take the trouble of comparing the historical accounts of the early Greek, Latin, and Ma- homedan authors," says a modern geologist,! " the increase of land at the delta of the Tigris and Euphrates may be distinctly traced. Since the commencement of our era there has been an increment at the extraordinary rate of a mile in about seventy years, which far exceeds the growth of any existing delta." It has been said that the town of Mohamra, in con- sequence of the injury which its establishment as a free port had done to the trade of Bussora, had been wantonly attacked by the Turks. By the treaty of Erzeroum it had been made over to the Persians, by whom it was strongly fortified in order that it might be secure against another attack. Since the rupture of diplomatic relations between Great Britain and Persia, the fortifications of Mohamra had been still further strengthened. Batteries, having casemated embrasures, had been erected at the northern and southern points of the banks of the Karoon and the Shut-el-Arab, J where the two rivers join. These, with other earthworks armed with heavy ordnance, commanded the entire passage of the latter river; and they were so judiciously placed, and so scientifically formed, as to sweep the whole stream to the full
- Travels and Researches in Chaldea and Susiana, by W. K. LOFTUS.
) Mr. LOFTUS. { The united stream of the Tigris and Euphrates is called the Shut- el-Arab.
