THE GARDEN OF EDEN.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXX, Issue 3598, 10 August 1912, Page 4

THE GARDEN OF EDEN.

Sir William Willoocks delivered an interesting lecture last month before the members of the Royal Geographical Society on the subject of 'The Garden of Eden and Its Restoration.’ Sir AVilliam thought that the Garden of Eden, the first civilised settlement- of the Semites, tho ancestors of the Children of Israel, was situated on the Lpp-c-r Euphrates, between An ah and Hitt- The wearing down, however, of the cataracts deprived the settlers of the waters of tie river which had watered their garden, and they travelled eastwards, and could see nothing behind them but the bitumen springs on the East of Eden, which seemed to them like flaming swords in the hands of the offended Seraphim. The Garden of Eden of the Semites mast have been near an outcrop of hard rock, upstream of Hitt, where water could be led off from above a rapid and utilised for irrigating, with gardens situated a little down-stream and above the rc-ach of the highest floods. Be r fore any work was undertaken for the regulation cf the Tigris or raising i-t. flood surface, borings should he taken from upstream of the site of Nimrod's dam, in a southerly direction, to see if it might not be possible to imitate the action of the -old Babylonian engineers, and turn the Tigris again over riie conglomerate. If such action could be taken there would be an economy of over £1.000.G00.