The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1871-07-09
Resurrect,ss In tho East-A Railway
frsn the Holy Land 20 the Euphrates.

10. And Q river went out OF Eden to water the
garden; and from thence II parted and became into
IL The name Of the first is Pison: that Is it which
compasseth the whole land OF Havilah, where there
Is gold.
IL. And the gold OF that land is good; there is
bdelum and the onyx stone.
l3. And the name or the second river Is Gh0n: the
same is that which compasseth the whole lana or
Ethiopia.
that Is II which goeth toward the east OF Assyria
And the fourth river Is Euphrates.-(Geness. chap.
H.
At point, then, from which the great
river Euphrates is divided into four branches
we have the site of the Garden Of Eden, where
the first pair of the human family were
created; and HERALD correspondent, travel
ling in those interesting regions, has described
this traditional site of Eden to be the Arab
hamlet Of Korneh of this day, location
which admirably answers the requirements of
the sacred historian. From that point eastward
to the Nile and the Mediterranean and north
ward to the Caucasian Mountains and the Black
Sea we have that most interesting historical
section of the whole world, distinguished above
all other sections as the cradle and the nursery
of the human race and as embracing within
itself the highest developments of civilization
and the mightiest empires anterior to that of
Rome. All this, if there were nothing more,
would be sufficient to make holy ground of all
those ancient lands within the boundaries we
have indicated; but as the cradle and the
nursery of the Mosaic dispensation of the Old
Testament and Of the Christian dispensation
of the New Testament and of the MOhamme-
In do OH
wonderful histories can never die till the earth
itself is destroyed. They are 80 closely inter-
woven with the most precious institutions of
the family, society and government, and with
the hottest and highest aspirations of men,
looking to a future state of existence, through
out the civilized and semi-civilized world, that
the countries Of the Euphrates of Egypt, the
Holy Land aud Arabia have each left their
impress upon the human race. which, except
ing the Arabian, will shape the destinies Of
nations and creeds to the end Of time.
After twelve hundred years Of marvellous
successes and vicisstudes the religion Of the
Arabian prophet is passing away; after
eighteen hundred years of conflicts by pen
and preacher, and by fire and sword, the
Christian dispensation, through the material
inventions and instrumentalties of the age we
live in, including the press, the steamship,
the railway and the telegraph, has received
a new and resistless momentum, which will
carry it ''from the rivers to the ends of the
earth" And here, in the vast cycle of human
affairs, sweeping through many centuries of
ooo1,x ho bOu for fho
ton of the Turkish empire in Europe, Asia
and Africa, which embraces within itself
Egypt. the land Of Moses, and Bethlehem and
Mount Calvary and the Garden Of Eden and
the four rivers branching out from that de-
lightful place, including the great Euphrates.
Under the dominion of the Turk, with his in
doent submission to fatality, all those coun-
tries excepting Egypt have fallen into hope
less decay and to the verge of barbarlsm. But
the hour for their resurrection approaches,
and the whistle of the locomotive will an
nounce its coming.
The Suez Canal is one Of the greatest
achievements of Christian skill, enterprise and
perseverance. But it is excavated through q
desert of quicksands, and the winds, with the
sands of the desert, it is feared, will be too
much even for the most daring English capi-
talists and spectators The canal is reported
to be rapidly filling with the restless desert
sands. and it Is apprehended that from the
heavy outlay constantly required to keep it
open it will soon be closed to navigation.
The English, most interested in keeping this
10, fholr oh IA tn
India, are reported as disposed to abandon it
to its fate. and as agitating again the construc-
ton of railway from the Mediterranean
across the Holy Land, and thence to the
Euphrates, and thence down that river to the
Persian Gulf, as their shortest route by q
thousand miles to Bombay.
We are not informed of the exact route pro-
posed for this enterprise, but the route which
appears to us az most feasible would be from the
coast near old Tyre, on the Mediterranean, by
the ancient camel caravan route, across the
Holy Land to Damascus, and thence to the mar
BILE ruins Of Tadmor or Palmyra, and thence
enthusiastically over the desert to the Eu-
pirates By this route, as far back as three
thousand years ago, the trade from the val
leys Of the Euphrates and the Tigris by cara
vans of camels passed over the intervening
countries to the imperial city Of Tyre, whose
merchants were princes and the marble city
of Palmyra, en- route, is supposed to be the
| Tadmor OF King Solomon. Now we know
from the natural capabilities Of the soil Of
Palestine at this day that ii can sustain a
dense population; and from the stupendous
ruins of those ancient seats of empire on the
Euphrates and Tigris, and from the character
| of the soil and climate of those great valleys,
we know that they are now capable of sustain
ing many millions of people, with anything
like Western system of cultivation; and
knowing all this, we may safely assume that
| an English railway from the Mediterranean to