The actual locality which Professor Delitzsch proposes as the most probable site of the Garden of Eden is between the present Euphrates and Tigris, just to the north of Babylon.  The boundaries would be—­roughly and generally speaking—­the two rivers for East and West; while for the North and South boundaries we should draw parallel lines through Accad on the North and Babylon on the South.

But granted that the general locality and the relations of the river Euphrates and Tigris satisfy the requirements of the text by such a location as this:  how about the other two and the countries which they compass?  The troubles of the earlier commentators will warn us, that we need not be too ready to force names, and to identify one river, and then, because we have fixed that, make the country which the text requires follow it!

It is, however, in this matter that Professor Delitzsch’s work is so satisfactory.  He has pointed out, that there is historical evidence (and also that the local traces are not wanting in the present day) to prove that, just below Babylon, we can find two prominently important channels or branches of the Euphrates, which will at least supply the place of Pison and Gihon.  As to the first, it is known that in historic times a great channel called by the Greeks Pallakopas (navigable for ships) used to carry off the surplus water of the Euphrates when swollen in the summer season by the melting snows of the Armenian mountains.  It branched off from the main river at a point somewhat north of Babylon, and flowed into the Persian gulf.  There is, indeed, no direct evidence to show that this branch bore a name resembling Pison. Palgu is the Assyrian whence the Greek Pallakopas was derived.  It is remarkable, however, that the word Pison closely resembles the cuneiform term “pisana,” or “pisanu,” which is used for a water-reservoir, a canal or a channel; and as this “Pallakopas” was the channel par excellence, it may very possibly have been called “pisana” or Pison, the (great) channel.  The identification of the channel called “Pallakopas” will be found mentioned in Colonel Chesney’s work, “An Expedition to the Tigris.”  The name, however, of this channel is not the only means we have of identifying it.  The Scripture says that the Pison compasses the land of Havilah.  Now let us remember, that the Scripture tells of two Havilahs:  (1) The second son of Cush[1] and brother of Nimrod, and (2) one of the great great grandsons of Shem (Gen. x. 29).  One we may call the Cushite Havilah, the other the Joktanite Havilah.  The dwelling-place of the brother of Nimrod is not mentioned, but it is stated that the Joktanite Havilah dwelt in “Mesha.”  The tenth of Genesis is an important chapter, as showing how the descendants of Noah branched out and spread over the countries all round the Euphrates; some going north to Assyria (Nineveh), others to the east and west, and others south, to Arabia and Egypt.