TCD MS 10516 folio 92 verso
[12th October 1916] grant that, within that number of years, the delta of the Euphrates has advanced 150 miles; or one mile in every 30 years.
It is tempting to carry our calculations further. We might probe into the past and estimate the number of years that have elapsed since the site of the ruins of Babylon lay beneath the sea, or we might peer into the future and reckon the time when the Persian Gulf will be silted up and converted into dry land. But such calculations rest on too insecure a foundation to be of real value, though they possess the worth of giving the mind some impress of the relation between the most active geological changes and the long lapse of time.