The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1910-04-28

rising of this kind. To control this water
and utilize it for irrigating purposes the
early people built a series of dams at this
point. They were built Of earth and were
primitive in FORM The population of the
entire valley naturally needed water to
cultivate their land Those living up
stream would therefore take what water
they needed by building dam, and the
people below would thereby be deprived
of their means of existence There was no
strong central government to regulate these
irrigation projects and constant anarchy
and warfare resulted. To make matters
even worse, when the dams broke, which
was a common occurrence, the people
living downstream were literally flooded
out, and were obliged to flee for their
lives
| This condition of open warfare between
the various sections of the valley is re-
corded in Genesis in the words, "and the
world became full of violence" There was
no government to appeal to for protection.
Each family was obliged to look out fer
itself The more far-Sighted of the in
habitants in the lower valley realized that
some day when the Euphrates river rose
unusually high the dams up stream would
break, and they prepared for the worst.
The situation may be compared to that at
| Jamestown, Penn, except that the country
along the Euphrates was low and flat
and the water would rise more slowly.
Noah was one of the far-sighted ones
who prepared for the coming flood. The
ark was built, it is believed, of poplar
wood, common is the region, and covered
inside and out with tar and bitunen,
much like the boats are built in that region
to this day. Noah probably lived in the
lower part of the delta formed by the
Tigris and Euphrates, south of Kerbela,
where the desert is low and flat and
would feel the full force of the flood.
The Bible records that the flood rose
to height of IS cubits, or 22 IL feet.
Such a rise would be sufficinet to mum
date an immense area in this section.
The rise of the Euphrates in ordinary
years was about 16 feet, SO that the dis
charge of the Euphrates at the time of
the flood was nearly doubled.
Noah floated off, in all probability, near
Kerbela, and was carried southwark. The
current and the wind both set in from the
north today in these uprisings as they did
1900 B. c. He finally drifted among the
i Chaldean marshes and touched land near
Ur, on the edge of the desert. 1t is be-
lieved that his family scattered widely,
and have the name of Ararat to noun
tain at a considerable distance from the
point of landing. There are no consider
able elevation in this general vicinity.
The same similar floods rise from
time to time and inundate this country
to this day. In some regions it is Gus
tomary to fire a gun as signal on the
approach of a flood, that the inhabitants
may be warned in time to escape. The
same open warfare between the tribes
in the upper and lower valleys is still
waged. 1t is to do away with these floods
and bring the entire delta into bearing
that the new irrigating canal is being
built
The ancient rulers of this country re-
allied the difficulty of the situation and
did all in their power to avoid it. Canals
were built by Cyrus the Great, Alexander
and others with this in view. The canals
were called Bridges of Blessings" The
attempt was made to carry the water from
the Euphrates to the Tigris at the head of
the delta. These attempts were effective
for the greater part of each year, but when
an unusually high flood were likely to
break, and the country down stream would
be inundated, as in Noah's time.
The ancient engineers had not discovered
how to raise water from a lower to a
higher level. They knew nothing about
| hydrostatic engineering. To the modern
engineer the problem which COMPOUNDED
Cyrus and Alexander is comparatively
simple one.
The delta formed by the two rivers
has an area of about 100000 acres,
of which 100000 form desert and
2, 100000 a fresh water swamp. The
entire delta is flat, ard while it is at the
mercy of a flood, as in Noah's time, it
also lends itself we'll to irrigating enter
prises.
The irrigating canals now being sur
veyed will bring Immediately some 81
100000 acres of land into cultivation in
Mesopotamia, and eventually this will be