328 Journal of a Steam, Trip to the north of Baghdad. [April, 



April 11. — At 6h. 14m. a. m. weighed, but in easting, the stream 

 caught her bow and there not being room from the confined space the 

 river flows in, to bring her head up stream with the helm, dropped an 

 anchor in the hopes of checking her, but without effect, from the hard 

 nature of the bed of the river. Drifted down a considerable distance 

 before we could get her head round, and did not reach the place we 

 started from, until 6-45. The anchor too, on heaving it up, was 

 found minus the stock. Sent the boats with a party of hands to track 

 up while the vessel ascended the rapid, which she did with tolerable 

 ease. Steamed up to a bluff point of the cliffs on the west side of the 

 river called Abd'l Kerim* from an old Immam now in ruins standing 

 on its summit. Hauled alongside the bank to wait for the boats, which 

 came through an inlet or Khalidj, observing a party of Shammar 

 horsemen making towards the boats sent an armed detachment to 

 prevent them molesting the trackers, on which they retreated. The 

 boats having joined at 9-20, steamed on. The river rose 17 inches 

 between sunset and daylight, causing a greater rapidity in the current* 

 It is hereabouts divided into many channels and well wooded islands. 

 12h. 20m. — Reached Gubah on the left bank, near a high moundf in 

 the plain, and the first tamarisk grove met with, north of Baghdad. 

 Our wood is deposited here. Completed wooding by two p. m. and stood 

 on. The channel is very tortuous to Kaleh Abu Reyyash. 



At four p. m. the Kaleh bore west. It is a ruined enclosure on the 

 cliffs, with a fine plain or Hawi extending to the eastward ; from it a 



present anchorage ; the Pilot terms it " E Seliva," or the " Siren." The Kelleckchis or 

 raftmen have a peculiar dread of the spot, and will never stop in this vicinity, believing 1 

 the interior of the cliff to be the habitation of a pleasing but seducing race, who lure 

 but to destroy. 



* This is the burial place of a son of the Imam Musa, the seventh of the 12 Imams 

 revered by the Shiahs. He was born in the year of the Hejra 128, and was poisoned at 

 Baghdad by order, it is said, of Harun El Rashid. He is buried at the village of Ka- 

 themem, on the right bank of the Tigris, three miles above Baghdad, and the Persians 

 have built a handsome mosque over his remains the cupolas of which are covered with 

 beaten gold. Rich's Kurdistan and Nineveh, note to page 144, Vol. 2nd. 



+ This mound is of great antiquity, and as its name signifies in Arabic a " Chamber or 

 Temple," I think it might be identified with some of the last positions. I possess neither the 

 time nor learning for such researches. Were the mound excavated it would no doubt 

 afford some interesting relics. Its situation is about N. by VV. from Tekrit,and is in Lati- 

 tude 34° 47' N. or 11 Geographical miles distant from the town. 



