'Mesopotamia' [‎32v] (64/152)

54
ECONOMIC CONDITIONS
Irequent of recent years, but is reported to have inter
fered with the trade of the river below Baghdad in
1907, 1908, and 1909. The rates of steamer freight
011 r i ver the four years before the war aver
aged 27s. <dcl. per ton from Basra to Baghdad, and 155,
a ton from Baghdad to Basra, 1
In 1913 the I urkish Government granted a con
cession to Lord Inchcape for navigation on the Tigris
and Euphrates as far as Mosul and Meskene respec
tively. The main provisions of this concession are
given on p. 100,
Above Baghdad the bed of the river is alluvial up to
Beled, above which town the river flows over a bed of
either clay, sand, hard conglomerate, or shingle, and
there are numerous rapids, islands, and rocks, which
render navigation up-stream impracticable by
steamers, though a small launch plied between Bagh
dad and Samarra (90 miles) before the war, and there
is a record of a steamer having, in 1838, reached a
point 28 miles below Mosul. Commercial traffic on the
river between Baghdad and Mosul is carried on, down-
stream only, by native keleks. These are large rafts
of timber or poles and brushwood, supported on in
flated skins, and are floated down on the current, being
kept in the stream by two rough sweeps. They can
carry ,) to 35 tons, according to their size. On arrival
at their destination, these rafts are broken up, the
timber sold, and the skins taken back to the point of
departure, When the river is in flood the journey
from Mosul to Baghdad takes three or four days; at
low water, when rafts have to lie up at night, it' takes
between ten and twelve days. The distance from
Baghdad to Mosul is 275 miles. The river is crossed
by boat bridges at Mosul, Samarra, and Kazimain,
Of the tributaries of the Tigris, the Diala is
navigable from the beginning of December to April as
tar as Bakuba (about 52 miles), and the Lesser Zab
1 I hese rates have been very considerably increased during the