4 IASCOE: GEOLOGICAL NOTES ON MESOPOTAMIA. 



impregnation of the soil with the salt and gypsum derived from the 

 Fars rocks, which lie not very far below the greater part of the area. 

 Whether any serious effort to grow trees has ever been made, how- 

 ever, seems doubtful ; for there should be a good chance of getting 

 suitable kinds to flourish along the river banks and along any net- 

 work of irrigation canals that may be constructed. I noticed bushes 

 of the Wild Plum (Zizyphus jujuba) near Baiji ; trees like Acacia 

 catechuoides or Acacia jerruginea, although not producing much in 

 the way of timber, would probably contrive to exist, as they do 

 in similar regions in Burma and India, and would at least provide 

 fuel, and form a humus for other trees. Local patches of soil 

 there must be, practically free from salt and gypsum, such as that 

 around Kut. The neutralisation of the effects of these salts — mag- 

 nesium sulphate, sodium sulphate, calcium sulphate, sodium chloride, 

 etc. — is one of the problems before the agriculturist of this country, 

 especially north of the deltaic area. 



Water. — The prospects of obtaining sweet water by boring in 

 the plain between Tikrit and the Jabal Hamrin and Jabal Makhul 

 are not easy to diagnose. There is such a large element of chance as 

 to the water being sweet or brackish that a geologist can offer no 

 very definite advice. The Kurd series flank the Fars of the Jabal 

 Hamrin and Jabal Makhul, and since it is a fluviatile deposit, it is not 

 at all impossible that its upper strata, consisting of loose conglomerates 

 and sandstones, may contain water which has been protected from 

 the saliferous Fars beds beneath by some impermeable band of clay ; 

 thick bands of somewhat sandy clay do occur at the base of this 

 fresh-water series. The probability is that this series underlies 

 the alluvium over large areas, especially areas not very far from 

 the ranges and parallel to them. The chances of reaching 

 this series with the drill by piercing the alluvium and obtaining 

 potable water, at distances not less than say 5 or 10 miles from 

 the ranges, are not unreasonable. Near Tikrit the chances 

 are against the water being sweet, since the Alluvium is full of 

 gypsum. 



To exemplify how much a matter of chance this question is, the 

 Ain Khalid and Ain Nukhailah springs may be mentioned ; these 

 occur close to the upper boundary of the Fars itself in the Jabal 

 Hamrin, more than half of which range consists of gypsum. The 

 water is only slightly brackish and is perfectly drinkable to people 

 accustomed to the small amount of sulphate present ; to those un- 



