from the
west-north-west. The two steam-boats the Tigris and the Euphrates were
then passing over the rocks of Es-Geria, which were deeply covered
with water. The Euphrates was safely secured; but the Tigris, being
directed against the bank, struck with great violence; the wind
suddenly veered round and drove her bow off; "this rendered it quite
impossible to secure the vessel to the bank, along which she was blown
rapidly by the heavy gusts; her head falling off into the stream as
she passed close to the Euphrates, which vessel had been backed
opportunely to avoid the concussion." The Tigris perished in this
violent hurricane and twenty men were lost in her. The storm lasted
about eight minutes. Colonel Chesney escaped by swimming to the shore
just before the vessel went down: he was fortunate "to take a
direction which brought him to the land, without having seen anything
whatever to guide him through the darkness worse than that of
night."--"For an instant," says Colonel Chesney after getting to land,
"I saw the keel of the Tigris uppermost (near the stern); she went
down bow foremost, and having struck the bottom in that position, she
probably turned round on the bow as a pivot, and thus showed part of
her keel for an instant at the other extremity; but her paddle beams,
floats, and parts of the sides were already broken up, and actually
floated ashore, so speedy and terrific had been the work of
destruction." (Letter from Colonel Chesney to Sir J. Hobhouse, 28th
May, 1836; Euphrates Expedition Papers printed by order of the House
of Commons, 17th July, 1837.)

Ammianus Marcellinus (xxiv. 1) speaks of a violent storm at Anatha
(Annah) on the Euphrates, during the expedition of the Emperor Julian.
It blew down the tents and stretched the soldiers on the ground.]

[Footnote 66: A place struck with lightning was considered religious
(religiosus), that is, it could no longer be used for common purposes.
"The deity," says Festus (v. _Fulguritum_), "was supposed to have
appropriated it to himself."

Dion Cassius (40. c. 17, &c.) gives the story of the passage of the
river. The eagle, according to him, was very obstinate. It stuck fast
in the ground, as if it was planted there; and when it was forced up
by the soldiers, it went along very unwillingly.

The Roman eagle was fixed at one end of a long shaft of wood, which
had a sharp point at the other end for the purpose of fixing it in the
ground. The eagle was gold,