'Report on the Development of Mesopotamia with Special Reference to the Regeneration of the River Systems' [‎10] (16/50)

10
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As the, river improved in depth, so our progress became more satis-
factory An East India Company trading post. , and we made 07| miles to Kas-al-Kheyran during this day
* The river flows between high and well-
wooded banks, winding very much, and varying in breadth from 200
to 400 yards. We brought up about dark at El-Media : on the 18th
we passed two shallow places, and with them got over all present
difficulties—the rest of the navigation being favourable during our
ascent of 54 miles to Kut-el-Amrah."
To anyone who knows the river as it is to-day, it is astonishing to read of " well
u ooded banks and an average depth, in the low-water season, of 12 to 36 feet and
a width of GOO feet in what is now the " Narrows."
The Euphrates.
(22) The Euphrates rises in the Armenian mountains, and enters its delta at
Hit some 560 miles from the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. . From Hit to Feluja is about 80 miles-
and from there to Mussaib 56 miles.
Below Mussaib there has been since earliest times a bifurcation of the river.
The right arm was the original bed, and the left arm, on which Babylon was built,
the artificial deviation. In the time of Alexander, the right arm was known as
the Pallacopus ; but to-day the river of Babylon is known as the Hillah branch
of the Euphrates, and the right arm the Hindia canal.
It is curious that Colonel Chesney, in his book, makes no mention of the bifur
cation, and the Hindia canal is only just indicated on his charts—the main river
running in a broad, deep channel past Babylon. He does, however, remark that
below Babylon the river begins to assume a different appearance owing to the
numerous canals drawing from each side at short intervals from each other.
To-day the Hindia canal is the main river, and the Euphrates past Babylon has
practically ceased to exist; this change being attributed by Sir William Willcocks
to the closing of the Saklawia canal, whereby the high-lying Euphrates being incap
able of carrying the extra supply it found its way into the low-lying Hindia
branch and scoured out a new bed. To combat this evil the Hindia barrage has-
been built, and presumably will be taken over and maintained as soon as the country
is in a sufficiently settled state.
The mean flood discharge of the Euphrates at Hit is given by Willcocks as
97,100 cusecs, and the low-water discharge 14,100 cuseces.
The slope of the river from Hit downwards is given in the following table.
The levels are taken from Sir William Willcocks's book and reduced to feet :—
'
Distance
in
miles.
High
Flood
feet.
Low-
water
level
feet.
Range
feet.
Distance
between
points.
Flood
slope
per
mile.
Low-water,
slope
per
mile.
inches.
inches.
Hit..
0
185-7
165-36
20-34
*Felujah
80-73
139-44
124-67
14-77
80*73
6-8
6
Imina Hamza
118
126-64
111-55
15-09
37-27
4-1
4-2
Hilla
Below barrage
161-46
106-96
101-71
93-50
86-94
13-46
43-46
5-4
5
fShamia
226-6
60-69
50-85
9-84
65-14
7-5
6-6
*Nearly opposite Baghdad,
tNearly opposite Kut.