'The Expedition for the survey of the rivers Euphrates and Tigris, carried on by order of the British government, in the years 1835, 1836, and 1837; preceded by geographical and historical notices of the regions situated between the rivers Nile and Indus. In four volumes. With fourteen maps and charts, and embellished with ninety-seven plates, besides numerous wood-cuts. Volume the first.' [‎54] (101/905)

54
THE SAKLAWIYAH CANAL,
[CHAP. III.
The Euphrates Hit, still famous for boats coated with bitumen, is 53 miles
near Hit.
Hit Boat.
by water, and scarcely 36 miles S. 36° E. in a direct line.
The scenery is like that of the preceding portion of the river
in every respect; and about midway there is a-similar great
sweep, by which, during a course of 14J miles, it only gains
5^ miles south-eastward,
velocity there, Tlle stream ' throughout this part of its course, has an
' average width of 350 yards, with a depth of 16 feet, and a
current of three knots per hour in the season of floods; when
there are 14 islands, some of which contain small towns,
built on ancient sites.
Three miles below Hit the remains of aqueducts disappear,
and the windings become shorter and more frequent, as the
river flows through a tract of country almost level,
and at Feiujah. At a distance of 77 miles along the stream, or 48 miles
direct, S. 70° E., is the modern castle of Feiujah, situated
29|- miles W. 2° N. of Baghdad. The average width in this
part of the river decreases a little, being only about 250 yards,
with an ordinary depth of 20 feet; and there is a current of
less than two and a half miles per hour in the flood season,
when the river forms 13 islands, without wood.
Sakiawiyah, . Above F elijjah, at 5f miles N. 60° W. from it, the deriva-
or i'sa Canal, tion, called the Sakiawiyah, takes place ; this stream crosses
Mesopotamia by a tortuous eastern course on the north side
of Akar Kiif, and now enters the Tigris at a point five miles
below Baghdad; but, until altered by Daud Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. , to avoid
the danger of inundations, it joined the Tigris a little above
the city. The distance from river to river (by the course
of the Euphrates steamer in passing, under Lieutenant
Lynch, in 1838) is about 45 miles. The remains of a