The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1877-09-05
MISCELLANY.
rHE CAMPAIGN IN rDEs AND AnAhAr.

q. 1t would read strangely Ill the newspapers,
this story of the Summers fighting in Asia
Minor if it were tfssnslated into the terms Of
ancient geography Instead of reading that
the Russian army passed the Caucasus and
moved upon Erzeroum by way Of Kars, we
should have sensation headings
ssRapid advance Of the Scythians u" Sue
cessful Passage of the Pison " "The Whole
Land of Haviah Occupied ! /" " The Men of
Togarmah Rally at the Gihon II" Fierce
Fighting in Eden ] y !" The Invaders Defeat
ed in the Mountains of Ararat {"
For, according to the best conjectures we
can make, the scene of the murder of Abel,
by Cain is the SCENE of the struggle, in Asia,
between Russia and Turkey and the fights
at Delibaba and levin have been among the
mountains from which the posterity of Noah
went forth to repeople the land while the
beleagured Russian garrison at Bayazid may
sustain its patience by looking up at the mag
nifcent double peak, clad in everlasting snow,
which almost overhangs them, and which the
local tradition points out as the very place
where the ark rested, and where 6 Noah, the
eighth person." waited for the seige of great
waters to abate.
1t is not wise to be toe infinitely exact when
it comes to identifying the localities of such
remotely ancient geography. But this we may
say with some degree of confidence, that in
this plateau at the headwaters of the Eu-
pirates and the Tigris we are to find that
country of Eden, in the eastern part of which
grew the garden OF Paradise that was the
scene of prime val history. For as to one of
the rivers of Eden there is no doubt--the Eu-
pirates And as to lHiddekel there is no reas-
on for doubt for the common name of the
Tigris, to this day, among the people who
dwell upon its banks, is d-Dukhleh, and this
or something like it, has always been its
name. And this undoubtedly is the river thar,
rising beside the sources of the Euphrates,
"goeth eastward to Assyria.' {Gen. IL IA,
margin) Neither do we have to look far for
the Gihon. 1t is a natural name for a river Id
those regions, being derived from a root sig
nifying to rush. 1t is the local name Of the
Oxus, but that rises d Thousand miles away,
flowing into the Sea Of Aral.
But the Araxas, or Aras, whose source is
just between the two uppermost springs of
the Euphrates, and flows thence by a rapid
and rushing descent toward the Caspian Sea,
is certainly known to have borne the same
name of Gihon. And though it does not flow
near Ethiopia, it does " compass the land of
the Cushites," (Gen. ii 10, margin), or Coss-
col, near the Caspian. AS for the Pison, You
can take your choice among several streams
that "compass the land of Havilah, where
there is gold" Havilah does not look in En-
glish letters much like Colchis but to the eye
of philologist they arc alike. The II is
strong cultural, that might better be written
weaker form of the Greek Oh the two as
are subsequent addition of the scribes =
and the is of Colchis is an unsuccessful termi
nation. So that in Colc1is we get as near to
g HaoiEah, where there is gold, !" as Co1ch is
near to Khuilch-and that is near enough for
all practical purposes.
Now Colchis is that land about the south
eastern corner of the Black Sea that was not
ed in early legends as the very California Of
the primeval world-the land to which Jason
and the Argonautc sailed in search Of the
golden fleece. For the river of Havilah, the
Pison, some like for the sound of the naine
doubtless) the Phasls others because it is SO
great and beautifully, the Halys and other
the Cyrus, flowing into the Araxes. For my
part, looking on the map of the region, and
having as good right to my own choice as
any of the rest, | pitch upon the Jorak, or
Acampsis, that rises in the same mountain
with the Araxes and the Euphrates, and
bounds Cochis on the west. And as look
on Colonel Chesney's beautiful map Of the
region and see that the old region Of Colchis
is now the pashalik of Akhagtskhe, cannot
help wondering whether the old name, under
barbarous form, is not cinging to it still.
Now take look again at your war map,
and you will see that the springs of all these
rivers are within little space--the land of
Eden, we may call it /; in the eastern part OF
which lay the Paradise--and that 1t is just IN
this eastern part Of Eden that they are ravag-
ing and fighting at this season. The heart OF
this region is the plain Of Erzeroum, stretch
ing forty miles by twenty along the head
stream Of the Euphrates, and elevated 600
feet above the level OF tne black pea.
My first entrance into the land Of Eden was
got in climbing up the steep passes Of the
Taurus from old Nineveh, toward the eastern
springs Of the Tigris, more than twenty-five
years ago. mistrust my boyisll impressions
of the time for two reasons First, we had
just escaped for our lives into the mountains,
having been hunted by Bedouins across the
torrid treeless plain Of Nineveh and, second
", the thought that we were just penetrating
into the sequestered, mountain-girded plateau
that seemed to have been walled off by the
Creator as the nursery Of the human race
may have kindled my imagination.
But certainly when, on mounting hot and
tiresome ridge of rocks, along the track Of al