August 9, 1917 
LAND & WATER 
-O 
Gardens above Bagdad 
f 
to the scour, opposed by a flat plain of fairly large extent 
and an over-grown sand-spit, behind which, sometimes as far 
as a mile away, one can see the old river bank. At intervals 
the stream divides round a low sandy island, and at some 
points the original banks are as much as three miles apart, 
though the stream or streams, occupying the bed are quite 
j^mall. These old-time sand-spits afford good grazing, and the 
Bedouin with their striped tents and fat flocks are dotted all 
over them. 
We pass the mouth of the Shatt-el-Adham, the scene of 
>oine recent heavy fighting, and reach Barurah, which is as 
lar as my launch goes. But again luck is with me, and I get 
permission to take it on another five miles to Sinijah, on the 
other bank, river-head for the moment. Arrived there, I 
meet yet another friend in the O.C. of the Field Ambulance, 
and we discuss further possibilities. There is no sick convoy 
in from Samarra, so no motor ambulance is available. A con- 
voy of cars bringing down officers, who were going on leave, 
was expected during the afternoon. Perhaps if I inter- 
viewed the Camp Commandant . . . 
Thr Camp Commandant knew nothing about the cars, 
which Avas only to be expected seeing that they arrived 
half-an-hour later, and their occupants boarded a boat 
he was holding back for them. I could proceed with the 
ration convoy at 5 a.m. on the morrow to Ballad station and 
go by train. ' In the face of such " official reticence ' ' there was 
nothing more to be said. So I returned lugubrious to the 
.Ambulance, and was comforted with tiffin, for I was sick 
of ration convoys. But the tables were turned. One of tly 
cars belonged to the very man to whom I had to report ; it 
came over to the Ambulance with a note asking for shelter 
and sustenance for the driver. So I proceeded comfortably 
in the morning, magnanimously obliging two other officers by 
giving them a lift in my car at the humble request of the 
Camp Commandant. 
Next morning I pushed off by motor car for Bailad station, 
which i« closer to Sinijah than to the village of Bailad. The 
latter lies midway between railway and rivet, and we see it 
from a distance of five miles, dark palm gardens surrounding 
a mosque. The road hugs the railway from Bailad on, and 
lies over old river gravels for most of the way. It is strange 
to see stones lying about in such prodigal profusion aftir 
a whole year of never seeing a stone at all. Such nice smooth, 
round, water-worn stones, too. I yearn to take back a car 
full to heave at pi-dogs in Bagdad. 
Soon after leaving Bailad we arrive at an ancient bridge 
over the Dujail Canal, built by Caliph Ali Mansur, so I am 
A Typical Ox-Cart 
Bridge over Canal 
told, upwards of a thousand years ago. It is of very soUd 
brickwork, its three arches indicating that the canal must, 
in the past, have been a much larger and more important 
stream. The modem canal runs under the central arch only. 
This arch has fallen in, so the bridge is no longer serviceable 
and we cross by a much less pretentious structure. But, 
apart from this, the bridge is well preserved, and the in- 
scription in relief, which runs the full length on both sides. 
is perfect. , , • •. . 
Five or six miles further, over gravelly undulating desert, 
we reach a higli bank lying across our road, and runnmg away 
out over the horizon, this is a remnant of the ancient Median 
wall and, with the Dujail Canal, and some minor banks in the 
neighbourhood, it afforded the Turks a very strong position lor 
the defence of Istabulat Station, two miles behind. The 
Turks made their last serious stand here, and we had a 
stubborn fight before winning through. But a few traces 
now remain of the struggle. Some little heaps of booty 
collected up against the railway line, a few dead horses, and a 
large area strewn with our shrapnel cases, and pitted with 
occasional shell-holes -that is all. 
I>^tabiilat Station is itself a heap of ruins, having been 
i)lown up by the Turks before their retirement. The ancient 
city of Istabulat is not much more than a heap of mounds 
and stands upon the bank of the river some six miles nearer 
