'Reconnaissances in Mesopotamia, Kurdistan, North-West Persia, and Luristan from April to October 1888. By Lt F R Maunsell, Intelligence Branch. In Two Volumes. Volume I: narrative report, description of larger towns and routes leading from them. Simla: Intelligence Branch, Quarter Master General's Dept, 1890' [‎20v] (45/312)

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Kut-’l-Amara and Amara. From Korna they both run through Busra to Fao,
where they join the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. line.
From Baghdad to Mosul the line follows the post road through Kifri,
Kirkuk and Altun Keupri,and is a line of two wires on iron poles. From Mosul
to Diarbekr is a line of two wires on wood poles following the bank of the
Tigris to Jazirah-ibn-Omar, and across the Tor Abdin range to Diarbekr.
From Diarbekr to Constantinople there are three wires on wooden poles.
From Baghdad to Kermanshah and Tehran is the Persian line following
the main trade route through Bakuba, Khanikin, Tak-i-Girra Pass and Karind.
There are two wires on wood poles. The office in Baghdad occupies a tumble
down building, and it is in a very bad state ; the instruments are badly kept,
and of inferior workmanship.
The bridge-of-boats consists of 27 pontoons, made of light wooden plank
ing, thickly coated with bitumen on the outside. They
Bndge-of- Boats. are jq £ ee £ ] 3roac j anc [ g5 feet long, with a 6 feet gun
wale, to allow Kuffahs and small boats to pass underneath.
The pontoons are secured to a strong iron chain passed across the river.
In high floods, it has to be swung back; the approaches to the bridge on either
bank are through very narrow intricate streets. The current at the bridge in
April was about four miles an hour; the breadth of the stream being 320 yards,
and in flood time 30 to 36 feet deep in the centre.
The barracks for the regular troops are a little above the boat bridge on the
left bank, and consist of a line of very substantial two-storied brick buildings,
built on three sides of a square looking out over the river.
Recruits were at work learning their drill with the Martini Peabody rifles.
The men in the barrack rooms were packed close together, their beds touching;
and were very crowded.
Muhammad Ahsuf Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. is the present Wali of Baghdad ; he is a modem
Turk educated in Paris. All questions of government are now referred to
Constantinople, and almost all the independent power of the old Walls is gone.
The embankment at Hillah on the Euphrates has gradually been falling into
disrepair; a French engineer now estimates the cost of repairing it at £500,000,
if indeed it is practicable at all. The river seems now to be taking the
Hindiyeh channel, and last year the channel opposite Hillah was almost dry,
and water was looked for in wells.
The Tigris annually floods the plain above Baghdad. Wheat, barley,
wood, dates, are the staple produce of the Mesopotamian plain, and the soil is
extraordinarily fertile. In spring, the so-called desert is covered with nutri
tious natural grasses in endless variety, and at all seasons a few showers will
turn its brown surface green.
The river banks both of the Tigris and Euphrates present gi’eat facilities
to cultivators, and between September and March crop after crop of wheat,
barley, maize and beans are raised by means of irrigation along the banks of
those and the other rivers. If the Government made banks to keep out the
spring floods and constructed or reopened some of the ancient canals, the yield
of cereals and the increase of trade and population would be enormous.
The plain round Baghdad is by no means a sandy desert, but is all rich
alluvial clay, requiring irrigation to convert it into splendid corn-producing
country. A good deal of water lodges in the hollows in the rains, and crops
grow without irrigation.
From October to May the climate of Baghdad is cool and invigorating.
Climate. ^ ie greatest heat is from July to the middle of August.