"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎١‎٥‎٤‎٢] (١٧٨٢/١٦٩٧)

The Tigris,
1542
the country on the new course of the ri F er had become exposed t
destructive floods. The services of M. Schcenderfer, a French eS
neer, having been obtained hj the Turkish Government, a small
barrage was thrown across the Hindiyah near its head in 1890 or 1891
and the deviation of the river from its old course was partiallv aud
temporarily checked. In July 1903, however, the central portion of this
barrage * gave way; and by the following year practically the whole
water of the Euphrates was flowing down the Hindiyah.
In former times the Saqlawijah canal^ leaving- the left bank of the
Euphrates a short way above Fallujah and entering the Tigris a few
miles below Baghdad, provided an escape for the surplus waters of the
former river, and m 1838 its depth was sufficient to allow of the passage
of a British steamer. At a later period this canal was closed at its head
by Mid-hat Pasha, Wali of Baghdad, to prevent the floods which in the
season of high river it brought down into the neighbourhood of Baghdad,
and this object was in a considerable degree attained ; but breaches therj
after occurred at various places on the left bank of the Euphrates,
inundations from which from time to time reached the walls of the
provincial capital. In 1877 £12,008 was said to have been spent in
strengthening the Euphrates embankments at different points; never-
theless, m the spring of 1878, the country to the north-west of Baghdad
was flooded by water escaping from that river, most of which eventually
found its way into the Tigris.
Certain difficulties connected with the control of the Tigris have
already been mentioned in connection with navigation. It may now be
added that in 1886 much alarm was caused to the Euphrates and Tigris
Steam Na\ igation Company by a project for the construction of a new canal
fiom the light bank of the Tigris at Dujailah, a few miles below Kut-al-
Amarah, of \vhich the purpose was to water lands recently acquired for
the Sultan by the Administration of the Civil List. Messrs. Lynch seem
to ha\e apprehended a diversion of the river on a large scale, similar to
that of the Euphrates into the Shatt-at-Hindiyah, to which they made
lefeienee, and, in consequence of their representations, His Britannic
lajesty s Ambassador at Constantinople was instructed to communicate
with the Poite. V\ hether the projected canal was subsequently made, with or
without modification, by the Dairat-as-Saniyah does not appear from the
overnment of India s archives. The importance of the question had
probably been exaggerated.
, . ^" e r aiSil ge had nevei been closed in the centre ; see Sir W. Willcocks'
Irrigation of Mesopotamia, page 12.