'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.' [‎108] (157/905)

108
wild and tame animals.
[[chap. vi.
vailing trees are the sycamore, the silver poplar, with the
tamarisk and liquorice plants, both of which are everywhere
very abundant. Below the Khabur, wormwood covers the
plain. Bustards abound; and even the wild asses are still
occasionally seen traversing the country with their well-known
swiftness. 1
Jackalls are found in large troops; lions and hyeenas are
not so numerous; but hares, black and stone-coloured part
ridges, francolins, bramin and common wild geese, ducks, teal,
pelicans, cranes, &c., are abundant. The rivers are full
of fish, chiefly barbel and carp, which latter grows to
an enormous size in the Euphrates. Truffles and wild
capers, peas, 2 spinach, and the carob, 3 are also found in
Mesopotamia.
Com. The country produces great quantities of barley and wheat,
in their wild as well as cultivated state, but oats do not seem
to be sown anywhere by the sedentary Arabs. Onions,
spinach, and beans, are the usual vegetables, and these are
largely cultivated along the sides of the rivers, where, just after
the water recedes, the progress of vegetation is surprising.
Some idea may be formed of the productive qualities of the
soil, from the fact of eight crops of clover having been cut in
the neighbourhood of Basrah during the year. 4
animai!fand domestic animals of Mesopotamia are camels, horses,
minerals. buffaloes, sheep, and goats, all of a superior kind ; but the
cows and oxen are of an inferior breed. The more northern
and hilly portion of this territory produces, in addition to
copper, lead, and other minerals, grain, honey, wax, gall-nuts,
&c a ; whilst the southern contains salt, lime, bitumen, naph-
1 We did not obtain a living specimen, although the Arabs engaged to bring
one: they brought a skin, however, of a light brown colour, without stripes,
and having a mane all along its back. This is more properly the wild horse;
but whether it was the animal mentioned by Xenophon, or that there is still
another creature of this kind in the desert, remains to be determined, as the
skin was lost on its way to England.
2 A pea called Arab addis is particularly good.
8 Ceratonia siliqua.
* See Mr. Colquhoun's Evidence before the Steam Committee of the House
of Commons in 1834, p. 144.