PERSIAN GULF REGION. 29 



far as the eye can reach stretch level plains of alluvium which is so 

 fine that one could hunt all day without finding a stone the size of a 

 man's fist. 



The Tigris, for over Too miles in length, from Basrah to Mosul, 

 resembles more a huge crooked irrigation canal than anything else, 

 and, with the exception of a stretch of To miles of date gardens 

 between Mahammera and Kurna, the lands on both hanks as far as 

 one can see are practically unimproved desert. 



Scarcely a shrub or plant of any size has been spared by the wan- 

 dering tribes of Arabs, who grub up even the smallest roots for tire- 

 wood. Yet much of this region, it is supposed, was once covered with 

 vegetation, and at one time supported many millions of people. 



The recent excavations are revealing every year more evidences of 

 the former immense wealth of this remarkable country, which has 

 remained so many centuries neglected. There exists perhaps nowhere 

 in the world such a single area of unimproved fertile desert land which 

 is capable of irrigation. That the region has been irrigated is shown 

 l)\ the ruins of old canals which are supposed to date hack, some of 

 them, to Babylonian times, and which, according to recent surveys of 

 a French engineer sent out by the Turkish Government, could he 

 repaired and put into operation. 



One of the principal canals of this old system, the Nahr Wan. is 

 over 185 miles long, and must, with its thirty branches, have irrigated 

 many millions of acres of land which are now as barren of vegetation 

 as the deserts of California. 



The soil is adobe, remarkably like the Nile silt, and capable with- 

 out manuring of growing almost any crop wdiich will mature in a sub- 

 tropical climate. 



The occasional gardens of the native sheiks, or chiefs, along the 

 river are full of all sorts of citrus fruits, apricots, peaches, and pome- 

 granates, proving the suitability of the soil. The tine hard and soft 

 wheats grown there attest, further, its value for grain-growing pur- 

 poses, and yet with all this immense territory, through which I traveled 

 for nearly a w r eek, the largest place on the banks of the Tigris between 

 Basrah and Bagdad was a town of less than 4,000 inhabitants. 



The situation partakes of the incredible. No one 1 met in the 

 country, not even the Turkish official in charge of the Sultan's estate, 

 or Sheik Kassem Kedery, one of the wealthiest chiefs of the place, 

 could give any idea as to the number of millions of acres there are in 

 this fertile valley, which is almost as level as the table I am writing on. 



As in the valley of the Nile, patches of salt land are to be seen here 

 and there, but to wash this salt out there is a water supply all the year 

 round waiting to be tapped by canals. 



The winter climate is as delightful as that of California in the same 

 season, but the summers are about as hot as anywhere in the world. 



