184/.] Journal of a Steam Trip to the north of Baghdad. 307 



here Siel el Azeez ;* at the above time Beled bore 1G9°, and Tholiyeh 

 99°. Khan Mazrakji, a place of accommodation for pilgrims on the road 

 to Samarrah north, and at 4 p. m. — N. E. This is the nearest point to 

 the Khali Sid'l Nimrud or Median Wall. I visited it in 1843 bnt it is 

 so well fixed and described, both by Capt. Lynch and Dr. Ross in the 

 Journals of the Royal Geographical Society, that I need not further 

 allude to it. 5-45 came to an anchor for the night in exactly the same 

 spot as we spent the night on three years ago. I was not sorry when 

 the declining rays of the sun obliged us to stop, for I felt much fatigued, 

 having been on my legs the whole day ; indeed nothing but the greatest 

 perseverance and attention to the steerage of a steam vessel through 

 such intricate navigation as we have had to-day, could ensure her 

 making any progress. From Khan Tholiyeh, the bottom has changed 

 to a hard shingle, over which the current runs, by trial, at the rate of 

 ^2 geographical miles per hour. The bed of the river is full of 

 numerous islands and shingle flats, and as there is in this season of the 

 year, but one channel of sufficient depth which receives the whole stream, 

 it occasions, where it is thus confined, a considerable fall or rapid, some 

 of which, notwithstanding, a heavy S. E. wind set in, enabling us to 

 make sail, we could scarcely surmount. The engines indeed appear to 

 be paralized, when on the summit of a rapid, as the revolutions decrease 

 from 29 to 23. This I can only account for by the weight of the 

 vessel in her ascent, acting against the momentum of the paddles ; in 

 fact the small diameter of the wheels is not calculated to lift, as well as 

 to propel, the vessel up an inclined plane. 



The country passed through to-day has been beautiful in the extreme. 

 The undulating hills forming the valley of the Tigris are now clothed in 

 their spring garments, waving grass intermingled with flowers of every 

 hue, forms a rich landscape, which the eye is unaccustomed to meet in 

 the alluvial plains below. Perpendicular cliffs, composed of masses of 

 conglomerate, laid bare by the abrasion of the stream, seeming to 

 threaten the destruction of the vessel should they fall, are happily 

 contrasted with their carpeted summits. The Hawis of alluvium pro- 

 jecting from the various points of the valley of the Tigris are highly 



* This is the south branch or feeder of the Nahrwan. It is now much broken by the 

 encroachments of the river. 1 have throughout erroneously termed the branch at El 

 Ghaim the south branch. 



