132 ’ THE ENTOMOLOGIS’S RECORD. 
drainage and (?) febrifugal purposes. Between Mulebbis and Jaffa 
lies the coastal plain of Sharon watered by the River Auja, and a few 
miles to the east is the commencement of the range of limestone hills 
that form the backbone of Palestine. The soil was dry and sandy but 
appeared to be very fruitful where cultivated. The numerous orange 
and lemon groves were separated by lanes over-shadowed by tall hedges 
of mimosa on either side, with an occasional stretch of cactus; and 
these lanes, with the red-tiled roofs of the majority of the houses as 
well as the European dress of the colonists, formed a great contrast 
to the flat-roofed, mud-built villages and the universal eastern costume 
met with in the districts below Gaza, and gave quite an English 
aspect to tho landscape, reminding me more especially of some of the 
fruit-growing districts of Kent. Oranges and lemons were very 
plentiful as might be expected, and although sundry regulations were 
issued prohibiting the troops from picking them, these were more 
honoured in the breach than the observance, at any rate by troops 
quartered im the groves. Units less happily situated had as a rule an 
orange ration issued to them, but our own men had as many as they 
liked to eat for the picking—with the full acquiescence of the owners 
be it said. 
Each grove had its own well for irrigation purposes ; not such wells 
as we have in England, but consisting of a masonry shaft some 50 
feet deep and 18 feet or so in diameter, the piping for the water being 
carried down the centre into the ground and braced by iron girders at 
intervals. When in use the water was pumped up by stationary steam 
or gazogene engines into fair-sized reservoirs of stone or cement (which 
formed admirable open-air swimming baths), and let out thence into 
the stone or gutter-piping drains which intersected the groves in all 
directions. There was almost always a shallow pool of water at the 
bottom of the well-shafts varying in depth from a few inches to a 
couple of feet, and these pools, the reservoirs, and the numerous little 
subsidiary basins in the gutters, formed favourable breeding grounds 
for mosquitoes; moreover the locality was known to be malarious. 
The R.A.M.C., however, proved equal to the task of tackling this 
daneer. The whole area was marked out into districts; all wells, 
pools, etc., marked ; samples of the water taken and inspected for the 
purpose of detecting the presence-of mosquito eggs or larve; and in 
every case where the presence of mosquitoes was proved, the water was 
treated to a mixture of crude oil and paraffin well stirred in, and this 
treatment was renewed where necessary at periodical intervals. In 
Mulebbis Culea: larve were found more commonly than those of 
Anopheles; but at Medjal-Yaba, in the foothills some miles further 
inland, where the water-supply was derived from cave wells, dnopheles 
was the prevalent genus. Another anti-malarial measure was taken 
by cutting down the vegetation near the bridges and bathing places on 
the River Auja and the ways leading down to it. This necessarily 
entailed a good deal of labour, but when there is an Army available 
such work can be carried out to an extent impracticable to local effort 
and hired labour. Mosquito nets were issued to the troops, and 
carefully drawn up instructions sent to all units. One unavoidable 
evil lay in the fact that practically the whole resident population was 
infected with malaria, but as a result of the above mentioned precautions 
there was nothing like an epidemic among the troops quartered in the 
