'Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society, from September 1850 to June 1852. Edited by the Secretary. Volume X.' [‎68] (201/458)

%
68
COMMANDER F, JONES.
numerous population. Twenty-two minutes marcli from Abu Saklier
brought us to some heaps of bricks that pointed, to the site of a villagQ
of a more recent d&te, yet perhaps of the age of two or three centuries
back, these ruins are termed Walaiyat ZahSyri,* and a deep dry hollow
to the S E. was pointed out as once the position of the Zaheyri Lake:
it doubtless joined that of Tarmiyeh, and, I understand, was the reser
voir which received, in the flourishing period of the Dijeil Canal, the
superfluous waters of that stream, during the spring lises of the Tigris,
Continuing on towards Kef Ali» we passed several tumuli of ruins that
connected Zaheyri with the old town of Akbara, whose ruins we
reached in exactly an hour from Abu Sakher. The tomb of Kef Ali,
a very venerable building fast tottering to its fall, is the only erect
portion of this once magnificent town, whose mounds now cover a
space scarcely credible, considering the modern aspect of the country
and its dwindled population. The Tigris, as it swept onwards in its
ancient bed, washed the walls of this great city, separating it from the
Walaiyat Zaheyri, (probably the suburbs of Akbara.) Akbara itself
was divided by a small stream called the Shatayt, or lesser river, whose
deep but dry bed is now seen winding to the SE. onwards towards
another ruined city, that of Waneh, also a celebrated spot in the more
recent history of the country, finally to join the larger bed, at a little
distance to the South. This latter is, however, very indistinct in the
neighbourhood of Akbara, for the Dijeil irrigants, when they reached
thus far to the SE., were brought into its channel,—the spade and the
ploughshare in a great measure obliterating its course, and turning its
ample bed that was formerly covered with waving masses of water
into fields of waving corn,—in their turn again to become an uncultiva
ted waste, now unblessed with a drop of the element with which it
was once so richly endowed.f
* ^ 5 This word here signifies <s a lord or master’ s the name is applied also
“ dominions.”
f Thus nature changes her aspect, and works out the great problem of ourex
istence. Smiling fields and green pastures become a wilderness, and refined king no
into barbarous states, in order, perhaps, to establish a progressive civilization, whlC nll vhtene<l
seen for ages spreading from East to West,—leaving those that were the e JL n ize(l
so far back in the shade of years, that were it not for history they can scarcely De v b ar j 0 us
as the parent stock of the many races now inhabiting our globe. In considering J te( j t0
phases which nature has assumed in this country, too much has perhaps been a ^ gom0
prophecy, especially by the modern writers, who to carry out a text of Scripture nav , ^ ^
instances, been so keen of perception as to see in detail, at the present day, tne wu
A kbara, * 1
■lave been ab
- the ex te
sgai
both ft
thu
time
prophets of ol
lefelopetheai
re?
^.nntne
irork (Kitto i
lor," witti a i
believe that
as the brick
drawn astra;
states to hat
of the Birs
ir heard t
“Was
only in the
ofjnngli
by the n
V
cularly