CEDAR COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
Melon, Iowa.
Please give a short description of Cedar County Nebraska.
Subscriber.
Answer.—This county lies on the northern boundary of the State, being washed by the Missouri River and drained by the several branches of the Bow and Beaver Creeks. In many portions the land is very rich and yields abundantly wheat, corn, and other cereals. In 1879 the corn crop of Cedar County amounted to 2,826,259 bushels, or 40 bushels per acre, which was the largest yield of any county in the State. Orchards of choice fruit trees have been set out and thrive well. The climate is like that of Southern Dakota and Northwestern Iowa, very warm in summer and cold in winter, which latter, from the dryness of the climate, is rendered more endurable than a higher temperature in some of the more Eastern States. The population in 1880 was 2,899. St. Helena, the county seat, is a thriving little town of 300 inhabitants.
THE SITE OF EDEN.
Westfield, Wis.
In Our Curiosity Shop of Jan. 11, C. A. Sharp asks for the location of the Garden of Eden. The Bible tells us that “a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from thence it was parted and became into four heads.” It then proceeds to give them in the order of distance above the mouth of the Euphrates. But one of these rivers is now known by its original name, and that is the Euphrates. Let us, therefore, go down that and see if we can find the other three tributary to it that will agree with the narrative. The first is a large stream from the north. We at once recognize it as the Hiddekel. This is the third river, and its head is far to the north, as is also that of the Euphrates. The text says, “it goeth toward the east of Assyria.” The marginal reading, I think, will be found to explain this. It says “it goeth east to Assyria,” and the great Assyrian Empire was upon it. As we go down these united rivers we find a considerable stream from the northeast, the head of which is in the mountains toward the Caspian Sea. If this is the second river, the Gihon, the text says it “compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.” This expression has doubtless led to much confusion, as the mind has been turned to Ethiopia, in Africa, and which seemed irreconcilable with the text. But turn to the passage and we find the marginal reading to be Cush, and Cush, or Cutha, was a country east of the Hiddekel, through which this stream flows. We turn again to the narrative and it says the first river is the Pison, and that it compasseth the land of Havilah, where there is gold and precious stones. After leaving the mouth of the second river, the Gihon, we find a stream having its head in the mountains east of the Persian Gulf, and also a place called Havilah. The country abounds in precious stones and valuable minerals, and this, with the other three rivers, seems to fill the conditions of the text. We will now hastily review the above to see more clearly its coincidence with the account as given by Moses 2,500 years afterward, in the second chapter of Genesis. A river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from thence it was parted into four heads. The name of the first is Pison, etc.; this we find in the stream coming from Persia, which fulfills its conditions. The second is the Gihon; it too coming from the land of Cush agrees with the text. The third, the Hiddekel, all admit to be the modern Tigris and its connections with Assyria agree well with the record. The fourth is the Euphrates, which flows as of old. But was there a place called Eden from which these streams flowed? Turn to Isa. xxxvii., 12, in the blasphemous letter sent to King Hezekiah by the commander of the Assyrian army, and among the nations he has destroyed is Eden, which from its connections with the other nations is supposed to have been near the junction of the third and fourth rivers. And in the list of nations trading with Tyre we find Eden connected with the nations in the same vicinity. See Ezekiel xxiii., 23. Here then, at no great distance above the Persian Gulf, near 30 degrees north latitude, in a mild climate on a noble river, we may look for the home of the progenitors of our race.
E. H. Fisher.