COUNTRY NORTH OF TIKRIT. 3 



REPORT No. i,— ODD MOTES ON THE COUNTRY BETWEEN TIKRIT 

 . AND THE JABAL MAKHUL. 



Alluvia. — The river Tigris flows through a belt some three miles 

 wide of very recent low-lying alluvium. This is naturally less salt 

 and much less permeated with gypsum than the higher-lying deposits 

 and is largely under cultivation. It is flanked on both sides by 

 an older alluvium, which forms the rolling plains of Mesopotamia. 

 This older silt is more sandy than that around Baghdad and, 

 north of Tikrit, is practically unstratified and strongly impregnated 

 with gypsum ; some of our deep military trenches show in what a 

 large proportion this mineral is present, not only filling small veins 

 and fissures, but impregnating the silt itself. Elsewhere, such as to 

 the south of the Jabal Hamrin this alluvium is stratified. Close 

 to the river and over soft Tertiary conglomerates which crop out 

 occasionally, it includes beds of gravel which occur in the pockety 

 way so characteristic of this form of deposit. The Tertiary con- 

 glomerates are exposed in the river cliffs at Tikiit and probably 

 most of the way up to Jift, associated with current-bedded sand- 

 rock, the whole forming part of zone " d " — the Nasaz zone — 

 of the fresh-water Kurd series. The alluvium is pebbly for miles 

 inland, the pebbles being derived from underlying conglomerates 

 belonging to the above-mentioned zone. 



Road Metal, — The pebbles of the gravel range up to 8 or 9 inches 

 across, the vast majority consisting of siliceous material, chert, 

 siliceous sandstone, milky quartz, etc. ; the only other noticeable 

 pebbles are those of an igneous greenstone, rare pieces of homo- 

 geneous grey limestone possibl}- derived from Eocene rocks, and 

 occasionally pieces of black pumice. This gravel — especially the 

 coarser varieties — broken up into angular fragments, would provide 

 road-metal of a high quality. No doubt it occurs lower down the 

 river, nearer Baghdad, and would vastly improve the roads of that 

 city. * 



Trees. — The absence of trees in Mesopotamia is, I think, not 

 attributable merely to the thriftless cutting down of timber in former 

 times ; since on the authority of Herodotus, 2 the Mesopotamian plain 

 has always been practically treeless, but is largely the result of the 



1 This gravel is, I believe, now being exploited at Samara. 



2 ra yap Br) aAAa BeuBpea ovoe rreiparai o-px^) v <j>tpew ovre 

 <TVK€iqv ovre afxtreXou ovre iXairju. . . • Uerol. Bk. l. 193. 4. 



