UR OF THE CHALDEES.-HARAN OR CHARRAN.-SERUG.

SCRIPTURE NOTICES.

"AND Haran died before his father Terah, in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees... And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son's son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram's wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran and dwelt there."-Gen. xi. 28, 31.

[Gen. xv. 7. Neh. ix. 7.]

“ 'Arise, flee thou to Laban my brother, to Haran.' Gen. xxvii. 43.

[xii. 5. xxviii. 10. Also 2 Kings xix. 12. Ezek. xxvii. 23. Acts vii. 2-4.]

"Serug lived thirty years, and begat Nahor :" (the grandfather of Abraham.)-Gen. xi. 22.

The city of Ur, where Abraham was born, and where Haran died, is to the present day called Urfah, Orfah, or Urhoi. It is at the foot of the mountains of Osroene, and at the head of the same great and fertile plain which contains the seats of the patriarchs of the family of Shem-Haran, and Serug. The pool of Abraham is still supposed to contain the descendants of the fish loved by the prophet.

"The city of Urfah is built where the hilly and rocky regions terminate, at the rich and fertile plains of Haran, in Mesopotamia."-AINSWORTH.

The plains of Serug (Batnae) and of Haran (Charran), are very fertile. There is from them a great rice harvest; and on the plain of Serug alone there are upwards of twenty villages, whose inhabitants are employed in this branch of husbandry.

The city of Haran, about twenty miles from Urfah, still preserves its name, and Rezeph still exists as a

ruined town of marble, on the road from Palmyra to Thapsacus.

Haran is now a poor place, inhabited by a a few families of Bedouin Arabs, who resort to it on account of the good water it contains.

THE TIGRIS-JUNGLE, WILD ANIMALS.

SCRIPTURE NOTICE.

"AND the name of the third river is Hiddekel, that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria.”—Gen.ii. 14.

"When sailing up the Tigris, (the Scripture Hiddekel) we stopped at a patch of brushwood-jungle, where nearly all the boatmen and guard went to cut wood for fuel. In the midst of this employment, one of the party disturbed a lion that was sleeping under a bush. He was greatly frightened, and speedily communicated his terror to his comrades, who hastened on board. The lion stole away, and the trackers, who had to walk through the same jungle, continued their work without making any objection. Game of every description is abundant throughout, which reminds us that we are in the ancient kingdom of Nimrod, that 'mighty hunter before the Lord.' The spot we were now passing, was quite living with the immense quantity of animals of all descriptions. At every step, our trackers put up pelicans, swans, geese, ducks, and snipes; numbers of hogs were seen galloping about in every direction; a lioness strolled towards our boat, and stood staring at us for two or three seconds; when within thirty yards, Mr. Hamilton and myself both fired at her, but as we were loaded with small shot, we did her no injury; the noise of our guns made her turn quietly round, and she went away as leisurely as

she came.

"The jungle on the banks of the Tigris is composed of arbor vitæ, and liquorice plant, which latter is very

luxuriant, being in some places about the height of a man."-RICH's Koordistan.

At Damascus, a drink made of liquorice is sold daily in the bazaars.

FINE SCENERY NEAR THE PASS OF THE TIGRIS.

"THE scenery along the banks of the Tigris is in some parts very beautiful. Near the remarkable spot called The Pass of the Tigris,' where steep cliffs descend into the river, our surprise and pleasure may be imagined,' writes Mr. Ainsworth, at finding extended before us a considerable expanse of well-wooded gardens, which stretched from the hills down to the water-side, and for about two miles up the river's course.'

"Nothing could exceed the rich luxuriance of these groves and orchards; there were open spaces here and there for maize, melon, gourd, and cucumber; but otherwise, the groves of plum, apricot, and peach, appeared almost inaccessible from the dense lower growth of figtrees and pomegranates; themselves, again, half hid beneath clustering vines.

"Overlooking this scene of vegetative splendour, and upon the side of the hill, were the ruins of a castellated building, the battlemented walls and irregularly dispersed square towers of which, still remain. This building covered a considerable space. Traces of outworks and of buildings connected with it were also quite evident, stretching downwards to the gardens.

"On two mounds not far distant from each other, and close to the river, are the ruins of two other smaller castles, of similar characters to the larger one, only with double battlements, and consequently rising more loftily from the deep green groves, in the midst of which they are situated. It would appear, from the great quantity of ruins in every direction, that this spot, overgrown with fruit-trees, was once the site of a town, but pro

bably built in the style common in the East, every house having its garden. The gardens are watered by a rivulet, which flows from a narrow and rocky glen.

"In the midst of this picturesque scenery, a cottage now and then peeped into view from a dense foliage, which secreted it like a nest, while an occasional mill announced itself by its noise... Higher up the glen was a small village, many of the houses of which were hewn out of rock, and some of them out of fallen masses, which often stood erect at the foot of the cliffs like great obelisks with a doorway in front."-AINSWORTH's Asia Minor.

"Leaving the Euphrates to the West, we proceeded up the Tigris, where we soon found ourselves in a current running between six and seven knots an hour, which fully proved to us the appropriate name of Teer, (arrow,) which the ancient Persians gave to this river, on account of the rapidity of its course."-KEPPEL'S Narrative.

SCRIPTURE NOTICES.

"OUT of that land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh."-Genesis x. 11.

"Sennacherib, king of Assyria, departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh. And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword."-2 Kings xix. 36.

"The word of the Lord came unto Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it, for their wickedness is come up before me."-Jonah i. 1, 2.