'History of the Indian Navy. (1613-1863).' [‎414] (433/622)

414 HISTORY OF THE INDIAN NAVY.
river, and embracing the classic sites of Meshed Ali, Birs Nirn-
rood, Kerbela, Kufa, and Babylon, and the portion of Meso
potamia from Saraarrah, on the Euphrates, to a point ten miles
above Bagdad, on the Tigris. The former portion was com
pleted and sent home in 1861, with an elaborate memoir by
Captain Selby. But both maps and memoirs were lost through
some unaccountable carelessness. The original maps and field
books have, however,.been procured from Bagdad, and the
map's have been redrawn by Lieutenant Collingwood, and are
to be engraved. Lieutenant Collingwood* also surveyed and
drew maps of the Shatt-ul-Arab from Bussorah to Marghill,
and of the course of the liindiyeh Canal, near Meshed Hoossein.
It is feared that this valuable work is also irretrievably lost.
Captain Selby and Lieutenant Collingwood, while tracing the
old bed of the Euphrates with great care, and surveying the
Bahr-el-Nejf, were exposed to much harassing work amongst
the marshes. They also sent in accurate plans of the irruptions
from the Tigris, and showed that before long, if no efficient
steps were taken to check the evil, that river would be as
unnavigable as the Euphrates now is. The latter portion of
the survey from above Bagdad to Tel Ibrahim, and from Tel
Ibrahim to Samarrah on the Euphrates, was commenced in
October, 1862. In the end of that year Captain Selby retired,
and Lieutenant Bewsher, who then took charge of the work
that had thus been begun, completed it in 1865. The maps
(seven in number) have been engraved in two sheets, and
Bewsher's memoirf contains an interesting account of the
ancient canals, which can still be traced, and some details
respecting the humbler modern system of irrigation. The
ability and learning shown in this memoir are proofs that
Lieutenant Bewsher would have been a worthy successor of the
earlier surveyors; but he died of diseases contracted during
the service, and the Government abruptly put a stop to the
survey, leaving it incomplete, and with much work still to be
done."
Lieutenant Collingwood also surveyed the city of Bussorah,
which, owing to the jealousy of the Turkish authorities, he was
compelled to effect by stealth, in the same manner as at Bagdad.
He also surveyed the country between the Tigris and Eu
phrates, from Hillah to the ruins of Niffer, on the borders of
# Lieutenant Collingwood, on Commander Selby proceeding to England, was
appointed to the command of the ' Comet,' and to be Surveyor of Mesopotamia,
from the 20th of April, 1861, until the 3rd of April in the following year, when
Captain Selby resumed his duties, from which he finally retired at the end of the
year. The former officer, since the abolition of the Service, entered the
Office, where his talents and business capacity have rendered him a valued
Grovernment servant. _ , ,
f On the part of Mesopotamia contained between Sheriat-el-Beytha, on tne
Tigris, and Tel Ibrahim.—-(" Journal of the Royal Geographical Society,
vol. xxxvii., p. 160.)