'Gazetteer of Arabia Vol. I' [‎434] (453/1050)

m
BITAIRAH
north-west. To the south-west they are bounded by the desert Jazirah stretching to the
Hai, while due south is the Muqata'ah of 'Audah Shattaniyah.
There is a comparatively small enclave round the town of Kumait on the Tigris
which forms the Muqata 'ah of Gassat-al-Gharbi. Probably | of the apparent area of
the Muqata'ahs is taken up by the two immense hores or shallow lakes, the Hor G assat-
esh-Sharqi on the east, fed by the Saf aah and Safaihah channels from the Tigris, and by
the channels from the Bitairah, and the Hor Ataiiiyah on the west, fed mainly by channels
from the Dujailah river. These hors contract and expand with the volume of water in
the Tigris and its channels, and have to be restrained by a vast system of dykes from
flooding the comparatively narrow river of cultivated land round them. When they
contract after the summer floods, excellent crops of millet are grown in the damp soil
left bare. Rice cannot be cultivated in them, because their waters do not hold enough
of the silt essential to rice cultivation. They contain no reeds, the reeds having, it is
said, been killed by excessive flood about the year 1903.
There is in the winter a strip of dry land between the Hor Gassat-ash-Bharqi and the
Bitairah river and between the Hor Ataifiyah and the Hor Gassat-esh-Sharqi—but in the
summer the two/tor# coalesce and avast sheet of water stretches uninterruptedly from
the Dujailah to the Bitairah. The rim round the hors is devoted to wheat and barley
in the winter and spring and to millet in the autumn, the only rice land being a small
tract near Kumait.
The Gassat-esh-Sharqi Muqata'ah consists of the strip immediate^ north of the Hor
Gassat-esh-Sharqi between the hor and the Tigris which is watered by the Safhah and
Safaihah canals. The name Gassat-esh-Sharqi is only an official name^and the tract is
locally known is Saihah Safaihah. It is about a mile broad in the cold weather and
grows good barley and wheat crops.
There is practically no cultivation on the strip between Hor Gassat-esh-Sharqi and the
Bitairah river, which is salt land apparently covered with tamarisk.
The Jazrah Muqata'ah comprises all the lands on the south of the Hor? Gassat-esh-
Sharqi and Ataifiyah between them and the Jazirah desert. These lands, beginning
from the east, and named Khazainah and Al-Hamish, Jif jafah, Jafijafat (a barren tract)
Tel Dukhn and Harair.
(a.) Khazainah and Al-Hamish. —These lands form a peninsula jutting out from the
desert Jazirah between the Hor Gassat-esh-Sharqi on the north and the big
Bitairah Hor on the south, with the Bitairah in the east.
(&) 'ah'—A strip abou 113 miles long and varying in breadth from J to f of a mile
stretching along the shore of the Gassat-esh-Sharqi to the west of Khazainah.
Wheat, barley and millet are grown.
(c) Tel Dukhn. —A large stretch of arable land 8 miles by 3 miles bordering on
Hor Ataifiyah, It contains a series of mounds of ancient bricks and pottery,
and several sweet-wells. Very fertile, but the greater part of it is flooded by
the breaking of dykes every second or third year, and when this happens the
cultivation of it is abandoned, and Harair, the tract beyond it, is cultivated
instead.
(d) Harair lies immediately to the north-west of Tel Dukhn, but contains higher
ground.
Navigation of the Bitairah, {9th February 191G),
Keep towards right bank—
From mouth to 1 mile more than 9 feet.
At 1 mile small island, take right hand channel, depth 7J feet.
Keep towards left bank—
At 1 mile Khare stream takes off on right.
From U k> 2 miles, more than 9 feet.
At 2 miles, 9 feet.
At 2 miles J furlong, 6 feet. 2nd Khare stream takes off on right.
At 2 miles 2 furlongs 6 feet.
At 2£ miles, more than 9 feet.
At 2| miles, 6 feet.
Next few yards, 4| feet.
Next few yards 3 feet.
At 2 miles 4i furlongs, 4| feet.