PROCEEDINGS 



OF 



THE ROYAL SOCIETY. 



1838. No. 33. 



April 26, 1838. 



STEPHEN PETER RIGAUD, Esq., Vice-President, 

 in the Chair. 



A paper was read, entitled, " An Account of a line of Levels, 

 carried across Northern Syria, from the Mediterranean Sea to the 

 River Euphrates." By William Taylor Thomson, Esq., with. Geo- 

 logical and Botanical Notes, by William Ainsworth, Esq. Com- 

 municated by Captain Beaufort, R.N., F.R.S., &c. 



The operation of carrying a line of levels across Northern Syria, 

 from the Mediterranean sea to the river Euphrates, v^^as undertaken 

 by Colonel Chesney, at the time he commanded the expedition sent 

 to that river in the year 1835, chiefly with a view to determine the 

 capabilities of the intervening country for the establishment of com- 

 munications by roads, railways, or canals ; but it was expected also 

 that the examination would afford information of much historical 

 and geographical interest. It was commenced in August of the 

 same year, by Lieutenant Murphy and Mr. Thomson, assisted by 

 Sergeant Lyne, R.E., Gunner Waddell, and some Maltese : but 

 most of the party being disabled by sickness, and their numbers re- 

 duced by deaths and removals, the levelling was at length conduct- 

 ed principally by Mr. Thomson, with the assistance, in the latter 

 part of the work, of Mr. Elliott, commonly called Dervish Ali. The 

 result of this great labour was to determine the bed of the Euphrates 

 to be 628 feet above the level of the Mediterranean. 



The whole of the district over which the line of levels was carried 

 naturally divides itself into four regions, each of which is character- 

 ized by its relative elevation, its peculiar geological structure, its 

 vegetation, and the manners and habits of its population. 



The first region, commencing from the Euphrates, comprises the 

 country of the upper chalk and conide limestones, which averages 

 an elevation of 1300 feet, and is but slightly undulated. The soil 

 is light, somewhat stony, and of no great depth, and is highly pro- 

 ductive in crops of com and cotton. These uplands are inhabited by 

 stationary Turcomans and Arabs, who are a mixed race of Fellahs. 

 The large plains of this region are studded over in every direction 

 with numerous mounds, of a more or less circular form, called by 

 the Arabs Tets, and by the Turcomans Heuks, the origin of which 

 appears to be partly natural and partly artificial. A village is found 

 at the foot of almost every one of these monticules. 



