hundred and eighty cannons, and at the gate of Tabríz, in the centre of the two fortresses, are twelve large cannons, placed there by Murád IV. The fortress is situated at a gun’s shot from Mount Egerlí; on the north and north-west extends the plain of Erzerúm, two miles square, a fertile flowery field, covered with villages. _Description of the great river Euphrates._ The great river Euphrates flows through the middle of the plain of Erzerúm. Its source is at the bottom of the pilgrimage of Dúmlibaba, on the east side of Georgia; it flows towards the west, causing in its way many marshes and canals, passes before the village of Kián, the castle of Kemáni, through the Yaila of a thousand lakes, inhabited by the Curds Izúlí, joins the Murád (the name of which it assumes), and passes like a sea in the neighbourhood of Malatia to Samosat, Kala’aí Rúm, Birejík, the bridge Búmbúja, Bálissa, Ja’aber, Rakie, Rahbie, Karkessia, Ania, Hita, Ebyár, Takúk, Helle, and Kúfa; it is joined at Kaverna by the Shatt-ul-arab (Tigris), and thus becomes an immensely large river, which is ascended by Indian ships from Bassra; the whole extent, with all its windings, is four hundred farsangs; it passes four hundred towns and villages. In the plain of Erzerúm its water is very sweet and palatable, well worth being recorded in the Korán by the verse:—“And we gave you to drink of the water of the Euphrates.” Besides the Euphrates no less than seventy-two rivers descend from the mountains of Erzerúm and Diárbekr. Makrisí says, that the Tigris and Euphrates were dug out by Daniel with the assistance of Angels. The Tigris is the Shatt, which rises east of Diárbekr, between Torjíl and Miafarekein, receives an infinite number of springs, and goes to Hossní Kaifa and Mossul. This river unites the upper and lower Zarb, and becomes a tremendous and roaring stream which is called the mad Zarb. It was of the river Euphrates that the prophet is reported to have said:—“O inhabitants of Cufa, your river Euphrates takes up two channels of Paradise.” Imám Ja’afer is reported to have said in praise of this river:—“If the inhabitants of Irák and Rúm were acquainted with all the excellent qualities of the Euphrates, they would build a wall on each side of it. Whoever bathes therein three times, may be certain of being cured of many diseases.” Another tradition on the Euphrates is reported by Abúhoreirí, as follows:—“The last day shall not arrive till the Euphrates flows not from a mountain of gold, on which men are killing each other; ninety-nine shall be killed out of each hundred, and yet every one shall say, ‘perhaps it is I who may be saved.’” The Euphrates and Orontis (A’assí), are the only two rivers which touch the frontier of the Holy Land. The Euphrates freezes in the winter so that during two months many caravans cross it, but it never freezes south of Erzerúm; it is a sweet clear water, and a great comfort to the