oU'2 Journal of a Steam Trip to the north of Baghdad. [April,, 



Tel Goosh,* a mound on the right bank, bore west. The country to 

 the north of Tel Goosh between Khun Suweidiyah and the river, is known 

 by the same name as the Khan, but the Khan is also sometimes termed 

 Tarimyeh, from a lake situate in an old bed of the Tigris called Sh'taitha. 

 This is now dry and is reported to be of the same width as the present 

 river. 5 p. m. Khan Suweidiyah bore west, and Jedidah E. N. E. 

 Many mounds of considerable size are to be seen south of Khan 

 Suweidiyah, probably the Tel Kheir of Lynch's Map, but I searched 

 in vain for the south end of the Sh'taitha f (or as it is misprinted in 

 Arrowsmith's copy of Lynch's Map, the Shat Eidha) which is repre- 

 sented to join the present river near this spot. I am informed however 

 that it is lost in the desert near this. iirrived at the Khan of Jeddiah 

 at 5-3, but finding the stream very rapid near it, proceeded on for 20 

 minutes and anchored near the old Khan of the same name. The 

 gardens to the north of Baghdad terminate abruptly about two miles 

 above Kathemein on the right bank, but on the left, after leaving 

 Moadhem, scattered villages and date groves are seen, as high as Tel 

 Goosh ; from whence to Jeddiah the country, at present, is highly 

 cultivated with wheat and barley .J On both banks, mud enclosures 

 are met with every two or three hundred yards, in which the cattle used 

 for the purposes of irrigation are kept, and numerous round isolated 

 towers affording shelter to the cultivators from marauding parties, attest 

 the imbecility of the present Government. The old adage of the sword 

 in one hand and the plough in the other is here literally verified. 



* Several mounds and lines of canals exist in this neighbourhood. According' to 

 Baillie Fraser, Mr. Ainsworth conceives that he has discovered in them the site of the 

 Sitace of Xenophon. Major Rawlinson however, deems the present suburbs of Baghdad 

 on the west side of the Tigris, to stand on a part of the ancient Sitace ; indeed the recent 

 discovery of large masses of brickwork on this spot, bearing the Babylonian cuneiform 

 character, in October last year, when the river was lower than it was ever remembered 

 to have been, would seem to identify it as the site of some very large city. The great 

 extent of the ruins, the size of the bricks, the great depth at which they are found (24 

 feet below the surface of the soil) justify, in my opinion, Major Rawlinson's conclusions 

 and above all the cuneiform characters on each alternate layer of bricks, point out, 

 clearly the pains taken in the construction of the buildings, rendering the supposition that 

 they had been brought originally from Babylon highly improbable. 



t Could this name, although at present an Arabic term signifying the " old river," be 

 a corruption of the early Arabs, from the name of the Town or district of Sitace 1 



$ The land adjoining Jedidah, Howeish, Mansuriyeh, Sadiyeh and several other villages, 

 although washed by the Tigris, is irrigated by cuts from the Khalis canal. 



