SULPHUR S. S. E. OF MOSUL. 35 



REPORT No. 7.— SULPHUR NEAR THE CONFLUENCE OF THE 

 GREATER ZAB WITH THE TIGRIS. 1 



Sulphur near the Confluence of the Greater Zab 



with the Tigris. 

 This locality is alluded to in Report No. 5 on the Jabal Mishrak, 

 from the top of which range it was observed that considerable 

 quantities of sulphur had collected in a dammed branch of the 

 Tigris below. A strong odour of sulphuretted hydrogen was at the 

 same time noticeable, and when the wind blew from the east this 

 smell was perceptible several miles west of the river. The 

 locality is some 24 miles S.S.E. of Mosul, about H miles north of 

 the confluence of the Greater Zab River with the Tigris, and 1£ 

 miles west of a village called Jaif (see ma]), pi 3) ; one of the 

 Arab names for it is "the Fountain of Hell." On visiting the spot 

 it was found that the Tigris has deserted its eastern channel 

 and confined itself to the channel west of the island. The eastern 

 channel remains as a long sheet of water, which would have been 

 completely shut off from the present river, were it not for a 

 copious spring in the channel bed which feeds its northern end, 

 and causes it to overflow southwards into the Tigris. This 

 large spring gives origin to a stream of water winding through 

 the sandy flat and flowing into the old Tigris channel. For 

 forty or fifty yards along its course from its source, this stream 

 is characterised by innumerable points of escape of sulphuretted 

 hydrogen. The evolution of the gas is so brisk in places as 

 to produce the appearance of ebullition, and it is dangerous to 

 attempt to breathe below the top of the bank which is about 

 five feet above the water. The odour above the bank is intensely 

 strong and not to be endured for long ; as already mentioned it can 

 be smelt two or three miles away. Occasionally one momentarily 

 catches the odour of tar, but this is usually completely drowned by 

 the sulphuretted hydrogen. Bituminous earth occurs in the bank of 

 the stream, and the Tertiary beds beneath the superficial deposits 

 are obviously of Fars age. The water is warm and bitter to the 

 taste. Further and further from the spring the oxidation of the 

 hydrogen sulphide and liberation of free sulphur increase to 

 such an extent that the southern end of the Tigris arm is a 

 milky yellow pool. The sulphur, present as such, is, too dis- 

 seminated to be capable of collection in any useful quantity,. 



1 Published separately in Bee. Geol. Surv. India., Vol. LI, p- 153. 



