'Military Report on S. W. Persia, Volume II, Arabistan' [‎7r] (18/96)

attempted on this river, except for a few “ bucket-lift wheels, ^
worked by animals, and tidal canals near Muhammareh. A v ;
In Sassanian times there is no doubt that a large area on the
E. bank of the Ka mn was irrigated, ; whilst the country on the
W. bank was . extensively irrigated from the Karkheh until the
middle of the last century. - . ^ T
Major Morton, R. E.^ who was deputed in 1906 to examine the
prospects of irrigation in S. ’Arabistan reported that it was
undoubtedly feasible to construct a dam at Ahwaz with canals
dependent thereon, watering the east bank; and that without
interfering with existing navigation rights, such works could be
made to yield a substantial profit. No further steps have, however,
been taken.
Lt. Wilson, I.A., examined the Karkheh at Kut NahrHashim
in May 1909 with a view to irrigation, and reported that it
was possible to build a stone dam on the rapids there, and that
such a dam would turn water into the old canals which stretch
thence to within a few miles of Aminieh, and were in use within
the last fifty years. Such a scheme, he thought, would irrigate
250,000 acres, and offered no practical or serious political difficulty.
Prom the Karun to the Jarrahi stretches another desert, flat,,
barren, and broken only by occasional depressions usually full of salt
water, and connected, in flood time, with the Jarrahi, or the
creeks leading to the sea. Into such a depression flows the Malih
stream which may be surmised to occupy a former bed of the
Karun. Here and there in the desert are groups of wells, with
one or two mud huts near by. In early summer these spots are the
centres for nomad shepherds, who are too far from the rivers to
water their flocks from them. Later on, when rain has fallen, the
shepherds leave the wells, and rely on pools and puddles to water
their flocks. The Jarrahi River, with a volume of water scarcely
one4enth that of the Karun, nevertheless supports by means of
irrigation ten times as large a population. This striking contrast is
due to the lowness of the banks of the Jarrahi, which permit of
irrigation by the clumsy and half-hearted methods of the modern
Arab. Prom Buzleh to Khalfabad, the Jarrahi is navigable for
small boats, and a considerable and increasing quantity of mer
chandise is carried to Ramuz by this route.
Prom Madlneh southwards, the water of the Jarrahi is spread
by a network of canals over the country on either bank, and its
waters only reach the sea after passing through date grove$ into the
marshes, which in their turn drain into the Khor Buzleh or the
A 2