f the Persian Gulf.

The flora would not have been so abundant if the fauna had been
sufficient for the supply of a large population. A considerable
proportion of the tribes on the Lower Euphrates lived for a long time
on fish only. They consumed them either fresh, salted, or smoked: they
dried them in the sun, crushed them in a mortar, strained the pulp
through linen, and worked it up into a kind of bread or into cakes. The
barbel and carp attained a great size in these sluggish waters, and if
the Chalaeans, like the Arabs who have succeeded them in these regions,
clearly preferred these fish above others, they did not despise at the
same time such less delicate species as the eel, murena, silurus, and
even that singular gurnard whose habits are an object of wonder to our
naturalists. This fish spends its existence usually in the water, but
a life in the open air has no terrors for it: it leaps out on the bank,
climbs trees without much difficulty, finds a congenial habitat on the
banks of mud exposed by the falling tide, and basks there in the sun,
prepared to vanish in the ooze in the twinkling of an eye if some
approaching bird should catch sight of it. Pelicans, herons, cranes,
storks, cormorants, hundreds of varieties of seagulls, ducks, swans,
wild geese, secure in the possession of an inexhaustible supply of food,
sport and prosper among the reeds. The ostrich, greater bustard, the
common and red-legged partridge and quail, find their habitat on the
borders of the desert; while the thrush, blackbird, ortolan, pigeon,
and turtle-dove abound on every side, in spite of daily onslaughts from
eagles, hawks, and other birds of prey.

[Illustration: 032.jpg A WINGED GENIUS HOLDING IN HIS HAND THE SPATHE OF
THE MALE DATE-PALM.]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief from Nimrud, in
the British Museum.

[Illustration: 033.jpg THE HEAVILY MANED LION WOUNDED BY AN ARROW AND
VOMITING BLOOD.]

Snakes are found here and there, but they are for the most part of
innocuous species: three poisonous varieties only are known, and their
bite does not produce such terrible consequences as that of the horned
viper or Egyptian uraeus. There are two kinds of lion--one without mane,
and the other hooded, with a heavy mass of black and tangled hair: the
proper signification of the old Chaldaean name was "the great 'dog," and
they have, indeed, a greater resemblance to large dogs than to the
red lions of Africa.* They f