ON THE WESTERN BANK OF THE RIVER. 
379 
active ; and, in consequence, my excursion in the way of their 
flying squadrons, was likely to become rather more perilous 
than when I had first planned a second visit to the desert: but, 
I was on a track not wont to inspire retrograde movements, and 
we went on. 
My object being to ascertain whether there were, or were not, 
any signs, however small, of former building on the western 
bank; and particularly in any line parallel to those I had been 
examining on the eastern shore, we did not, in passing through 
the larger suburb of Hillah, quit it by the Thamasia, or western 
gate, which pointed almost direct to Birs Nimrood; but left the 
town by the gate nearest to the river, and which gave our march 
a northerly direction. On this route we soon reached the Tajya 
canal, whose dry bed we crossed about a mile from the town.* 
Another mile led us to a second canal, called the Abou-Hillah, 
not much inferior in size to the preceding, and which we tra¬ 
versed in the same manner. Fifty yards farther, brought us on 
the bank of a third very old and dilapidated water-course ; and 
beyond that, to the Thamasia canal, which far exceeded any of 
the preceding in dimensions and general consequence. It and 
the Abou-Hillah run in a parallel direction north 35° east. Our 
course was north-west; and for nearly two miles beyond these 
dry aqueducts we found the ground perfectly level; partially 
cultivated in parts, and in other places covered with wild plants 
and rank grass. Farther on we approached the village of Anana. 
It is situated on the western bank of the Euphrates, almost 
immediately opposite the ruins of the Amran and Kasr Hills ; 
and is distant nearly three miles from Hillah. About fifty yards 
* See Plate LXXIV. 
3 c 2 
