'The Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society. From January 1865 to December 1867. (Edited by the Honorary Secretary.) Volume XVIII.' [‎15] (150/268)

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BAGDAD TO CONSTANTINOPLE. 15
grasses. This led the way to large and small pits or holes which had
once evidently been active springs, and eventually to live springs them
selves rising in oval or circular basins of tepid water, the largest of
which may have been forty feet in circumference. The ridges average
perhaps fifteen feet in height; the slopes are gentle, the backbone is
sharp. In one place only, among the extinct springs, was the trough of
any breadth or extent. Where the springs were active the water was
trickling down in all directions. They rise in little globules just about
the surface of the basins, and it is difficult to count them. One rises
almost in the other, in appearance, from under the water. The nei»h-
touring ground is hard stone and sand. People bathe here, and the
waters have healing properties, though I could detect in them no
sulphurous smell. I reserved the experiment for Kohineh, where an
excellent public bath has been constructed, into which the waters of a
hot and cold spring are led in a manner that the supply can be regulated
by the bather.
17* Appended is a list of stages from Bagdad to Angureh. For eight
out of the first fourteen marches, or
III. The inhabitants, with some U p to the Zab Su (ancient Zabates),
account of the larger towns, and 1 . . . '
matters of general or political interest. bivouac was in a Kurd or Arab
tent, and far preferable was this to
being quartered in the mosque, konak, out-house, or stable, of a so-called
town. In the one fresh air and comparative freedom from filth and
vermin were at least obtainable, in the other nothing could compensate
for the confinement and uncleanliness. Beyond the Zab we came upon
Christian villages, and these continued more or less in the neighbour
hood of our road to Mosul up to the banks of the Tigris. We met with
others again on moving upwards to Jezireh, and between Jezireh and
Mardin there are a considerable number. It was pleasant to feel amid
a Christian community, but I am sorry to acknowledge something like
disappointment at the first impressions obtained at the Chaldean village
of Tell Keif, one day’s march from Mosul. Not that there was positive
lack of hospitality, but the welcome, such as it was, could scarcely be
genial or unmixed with suspicion. However, it must he borne in mind
that we were accompanied by Mahomedan officials, a circumstance
sufficient of itself to account for shortcomings. The best method of
discriminating between the sects I found to he to consider the two great
divisions^ called in the country Chaldeans (Caldani) and Syrians