'Routes in Arabia' [‎687] (718/852)

687
Route No. 190— contd.
Between Qumah and MadTnah (14 miles) the banks consist of date
groves alternating with reed swamps. Msdinah is a town of some
2,500 inhabitants, situated on the right bank. Under the Turk
ish administration it was the seat of a Harbour Master and the
headquarters of the Nahiyah of the same name in the Qadha of
Qumah. Near Madlnah on the south side of the river are great
marshes known as the Hor-al-Jazair which communicate with
the Shatt-al-' Arab, and from which also, in flood time, Eu
phrates water finds its way down to the track between Basrah and
Zubair, For the next 15 miles up to the eastern end of Chah-
baish village, both banks consist of reed swamps. During the
entire length innumerable small streams run into the marshes
on either bank. Chahbaish is a straggling village, some 6 miles
in length, inhabited by Bani Asad Arabs. It is situated-in a long
belt of date palms on the left bank of the river. During the low
water season, Chahbaish forms a convenient place to tranship
from river steamers into shallow draught boats.
2 CHAHBAISH 4|m. The passage throughout
(West end) to Eastern this section is clearly
4im. Edge of HAMMAR defined by reeds on
LAKE. % either side, and has a
width of from 75 to 100 yards. Its depth is over 9 feet in April,
May and June, but falls to about 4J feet in the low water season.
At the entrance to the Lake it shallows to 7 feet in high flood
and to 2 feet in September, October, and November.
3 THE HAMMAR 14 m. On entering the
wide and is marked on either side by reeds, those to the north
being thin and scattered. After proceeding 1^ miles, twenty tall
isolated palms are passed at a distance of 700 yards north of the
channel which now bends north by west and continues in this
direction for 1£ miles, running parallel to reeds on the south-west
at a distance of \ mile from them. When due west of the
island of Bani Hatait, the channel turns west by south
for about 11 miles to Mezlik. The width of open channel
throughout this 11-mile reach is about a mile and there is
no clearly defined channel bed. The water shallows towards the
north and south where the island villages are situated. North
ward of the northern belt of villages is a shallow inundation
14m.
LAKE.
Hammar Lake the chan
nel is some 200 yards