{22} Take two examples of this etymology. HEBREW is supposed to be derived from Heber, sou of Salah, great-grandson of Shem, who is called “the father of all the children of Heber” (Gen. x., 21–24); but Abraham, the 6th remove from Heber, is called a Hebrew after he crossed over into Canaan (Gen. xiv., 13). The more probable derivation of the word is _heber_ (an emigrant, one that has crossed over); if so, Abraham was called a _hebrew_ because he was a sojourner who had crossed over into the “land of promise.” Again, CANAAN is said to have been so called from Canaan son of Ham, and Canaan’s eldest son was, according to the same authority, Sidon, founder of the Sidonians, and his other sons were founders of the Hittites, Jebusites, Amorites, Girgasites, Hivites, Arkites, Sinites, Arvadites, Zemarites, and Hamathites (Gen. x., 15–18). All this is most improbable, although in keeping with the practice of ancient chroniclers. Modern historians find more probable derivations in some local peculiarity or suggestive characteristic. Thus Argos, in Greece, is mythically derived from Argos, its 4th king; but Strabo tells us the word means _a plain_. Devonshire is not a corruption of Debon’s share or lot (_Faery Queen_ ii., 10), but of the Saxon _defn-afon_ (deep water). Similarly Canaan means _low lands_, as opposed to “Aram” (the highlands), and being suited to commerce from its nearness to the coast, the word in time became a general term for “a trader.” {23} Arphaxad was born “two years after the flood” [Gen. xi., 10]; at the age of 35 he had a son, Salah [v., 12], in thirty more years Salah had his son Eber, and before Pelez was born, which was 34 years later, the Dispersion had taken place. {24} It may be safely asserted that population, when unchecked, increases in a geometrical progression of such a nature as to double itself every 25 years.—_Encyclopædia Britannica_, vol. xviii., p. 3, col. Practically, such an instance is rare, if not wholly uninstanced. Take the increase of England and Wales as an example. In 1377 it was 2,092,978, in 1483 it was 4,689,000; in the 100 years, ending with 1800, the population had increased from 5,475,000 to 8,675,000; and in the century ending with 1860 it increased nearly threefold, the largest increase we have experienced. [In 1760 it was 6,736,000, in 1861 it was 20,062,725.] {26a} The average size of an ox in the herd is 60 stone (of 8 lbs.), and of a sheep six stone. When the Armistice of 28 days was lately proposed, the supply of Paris for the time was estimated at 34,000 oxen, 8,000 sheep, 8,000 swine, 5,000 calves, 100,000 cwt. of salt meat, eight million cwt. of hay and straw, 200,000 cwt. of meal, and 30,000 cwt. of dried vegetables. For the cooking of food, the estimate was 100,000 tons of coals, and 14 million square feet of wood.