'Field notes: Mesopotamia. General Staff, India. February, 1917.' [‎12v] (31/350)

I
16
geological origin, the soil is found everywhere to consist of a
sandy clay, abounding in excellent agricultural properties
and incapable of cultivation only where water fails. Its
astounding fertility is sufficiently shown by the fact that it
still remains unexhausted after having supported the teeming
populations^ of the Assyrian, Babylonian and Persian Empires
and that Sir William Willcocks is of opinion that, if a proper
system of irrigation control is once more put into force, the
country can have in front of it a future of prosperity equal to
that which it enjoyed in ancient days.
At the present time, owing to the want of suitable control
over the water and to the inertia of the inhabitants, the land so
favourable for agriculture _ is, comparatively speaking, little
cultivated, and the population relies mainly on the produce of
its flocks and herds for which there is good grazing in sprino r
even in the so-called desert country.
The main features of the region are the two rivers Euphrates
J and Tigris, which, together with their valleys-, will be alluded to
/ m detail later. These rivers approach fairly close to one an-
other at Baghdad, and then turn apart to unite finally at Gurmat
'Ah, below Qurnah. From Qurnah downwards the stream is
known as the Shatt-al-’Arab. The junction used to be at
Qurnah, and the old channel of the Euphrates is still in existence,
though the banks are for the most part destroyed and no
Euphrates water enters the Tigris from it. Between Baghdad
and Qurnah the main streams are connected by several channels
and intermittent water-courses, of which the chief are the Nabr 1
Isa or Sakhlawiyah Canal (closed at its head on the Euphrates)-
and the Shatt-al-Hai. Around Qurnah and between Wnarah
and that place there are extensive marshes, but below Qurnah.
the Shatt-al-’Arab traverses a flat and fertile plain, doped over
v ith villages, and covered with artificially irrigated meadow
lands and date groves. At Muhammareh (Persian territory)
40^miles above its mouth and 20 miles below Basrah the Shatt-
al- Arab is joined by the Karun from Persia, and here properlv
begins the delta, of which only one arm is navigable. For six
months in the year this delta is converted into a swampy dis
trict, through the melting of the snows about the head-streams
m spring and occasionally by the action of the autumn rains.
^ noutl1 to Baghdad the main stream (Shatt-al-’Arab t
and iigns) is navigable throughout the year for steamers of ^
some size (see page 100).
m