'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.' [‎419] (500/905)

CHAP. XVIII.]
RIVER SAJUR.
419
200 clay-built houses, the remains of a Greek Church, and a
ruinous castle overhanging the Kersin. A little below, the
latter is crossed by the bridge which leads to Bir, and soon
afterwards it receives an affluent coming eastward from the
Nizib hills. 1 Except during the rainy season, the Kersin is
thus far fordable ; but it is deeper during the remainder of its
course, which is eastward, till it falls into the Frat a few
miles below Port William.
The Sajiir, the next river southward, and a more considerable Course of the
stream, runs almost parallel to the Kersin, but with a more S ^ ur
lengthened course. The principal branch has two sources,
which, after running a short distance along the southern slopes
of the Taurus, unite at the eastern side of Ain-tab; and a
little way south-eastward it is joined by an affluent coming
from the hills westward of the village of Arul. The trunk
now flows with a tortuous course along a deep bed between
two ranges of hills, for a distance of about 30 miles, to Tell
Khalid, a small village situated at the foot of one of the
monticules already noticed as being so common in this part of
the country. From an oval base of about 300 feet in length
by 200 feet in breadth, this remarkable and chiefly artificial
Tell rises in the shape of a truncated cone to a height of
nearly 174 feet; and on its summit are some trifling remains
of the castle which was an object of contest during the wars
of Salah-ed-din, 2 and the subsequent invasion of Taimur.
Just below the village, the Sajur receives its western affluent, it enters the
the Keraskat, which flows into it from the village of Jiljamah, Eu P brates -
about 25 miles to the north-west, where it has two sources.
Here the Sajur, now a considerable stream suited for boat
navigation, makes a bold sweep eastward; and, after running
about 12 miles as before, between two ranges of low hills of
chalk, it receives a feeder coming south-east from the village
of Tell Izan; after which it inclines more southward, and
finally forms five short branches and four islands as it enters
the Euphrates, 3 near the tent village of Sarasat. Not far
1 The position occupied by the Sultdn's army when defeated by Ibrahim
Pdsha, 24th June, 1839.
2 Hist, des Huns, tome II., p. 232. 3 See above, p. 47.
3 H 2