1847-] Journal of a Steam Trip to the north of Baghdad. 303 



Received a visit this evening from the Governor of Samarrah, who 

 has been summoned to Baghdad on business, but has obligingly given 

 me a letter to his vakeel. 



Strength of the current where we are at anchor was found 2\ knots 

 per hour, though a few hundred yards lower down it probably amounts 

 to double this rate. 



April 3d. — Left our anchorage at 5-38 a. m., the river having risen 

 during the night 8 inches, with a cold northerly wind. Thermometer 

 43° ; passed the villages of Howeish and Mansuriyeh, the former at 6- 

 40, the latter at 8-15, when it bore east on the right bank and west of 

 Mansuriyeh ; the Tarmiyeh ancient canal leaves the Tigris, and another 

 large canal bearing the same name, and said to be of more ancient date, 

 is seen about one and a half miles below. This has now been long dry, 

 but the northern canal, during the high state of the river, still receives a 

 portion of the Tigris and is lost in the marshes west of Kathemein. Its 

 direction by compass was observed to be 244°. The river near Mansuriyeh 

 is very broad, but broken by islands. A khiyat* or wall is situate a 

 little to the north of the Upper Tarmiyeh, having an old Khan in ruins 

 close to it. 9-11 passed Sadiyah village and grove of date trees; the 

 country every mile becoming more elevated, and the valley of the Tigris 

 beginning to assume a distinct form. Reached the village of Sindiyah at 

 10-33 and received 12 hours' fuel. Remained here until noon to ob- 

 tain observations, which place the village in Lat. 33° 52' 50". The 

 whole of the gardens and date groves, from Jeddiah to this place are 

 irrigated by the Khalisf canal, which and the Dejeil, are the only canals 

 of importance that the Pachalic can now boast of. A sad picture for 



* This is represented as resembling the Khali sidd '1 Nimrud, or Median Wall, in con- 

 struction. It is stated to run in a S. W. direction and to be lost in the marshes near Akr- 

 Keif. I think it very probable from the information obtained, that many walls of the same 

 description as that " par excellence" termed " the Median" will be found to exist in this 

 part of the country. The term Khiyut or " lines" is here universally employed for " ram- 

 parts or walls" and differs materially from that of Nhar adopted in reference to canals. 

 The Khali is however the longest and most northerly and therefore the most important. 



t This canal is a cut from the Diyala where it breaks through the Hamrin range. It 

 pursues a S. W. course a short distance north of and nearly parallel to the river Diyala ; 

 many villages are situated on its banks and numerous fine date groves are watered by it 

 in its course to the Tigris, which receives its superabundant waters after a severe winter 

 only. At other times it is lost in irrigating the country around Sadiyeh, Mansuriyeh, 

 Howeish and Jedidah. 



2 s 2 



