'Precis Containing Information in regard to the First Connection of the Hon'ble East India Company with Turkish Arabia, as far as the Same Can Be Traced from the Records of the Bombay Government, together with the Names of the Several British Residents and Political Agents Who Have Been Stationed at Bagdad [Baghdad] and Bussorah [Basra] between A.D. 1646 and 1846, accompanied by Other Information' [‎105v] (214/226)

[ xlii ]
Modern research has not yet been able to trace the extent of those, the
mouths of which are still visible on the east bank of the Tigris and in
Susiana, nor to explore those which doubtless do exist in the extensive
tracts from Hillak or Selennia to the Eye, and from thence to Koorna.
The value, however, of what has been lost, as well as of that which
remains as yet unknown, may be estimated by the fractions with which
we are acquainted.
The whole agricultural produce of Mesopotamia at present may be
considered as being' derived from the operation of the following eight
canals which are themselves in but very partial use:—
1. The Boo Ghuraib, which deriving from below Felugia joins
the marshes of Bagdad.
2. The Massoodee, which derives from a swamp fed by the
Euphrates and joins the Tigris too below the former.
3. The Davodee (cut by Daood Pacha), which joins these two last
canals.
4. The Kithwannieh, which derives from the Euphrates south
west of Bagdad and joins the Tigris below the Masoodee.
5. The Mahmoodee, which derives from the Euphrates and flows
towards Seleucia, but is lost in irrigation.
There are a few smaller cuts between this last and the town of Hil-
lah, but they water comparatively little ground.
6. The Khalis in Assyria, on the east of the Tigris, which derives
from the right shore of the Diala and runs nearly 70 miles with a wind
ing but south-westerly course that brings it within 20 miles of Bagdad.
7. The Khoraisan, which is derived from the opposite side of the
Diala, and has nearly an equal course with the last in a south-easterly
direction.
8. The Dejail, an ancient canal, almost choked up and in the hands
of the Jerbak Arabs, but under all these disadvantages it is let on farm
for about 13 lakhs One lakh is equal to one hundred thousand rupees of Piasters or about £3,500 a year. Its derivation
and course are mentioned above.
These modern canals, with the exception of the Khalis and Khorai
san, are works of inferior extent and importance to the ancient ones, and
even these, it may be safely stated, since the plague and inundation of
1831, and in consequence of the tyrannous rapacity of the Government
and its inability to protect its Fellahs Arabic for ‘peasant’. It was used by British officials to refer to agricultural workers or to members of a social class employed primarily in agricultural labour. from pillage, are upon an average
scarcely one-tenth part in operation. From this fact, which may be relied
on, some idea may be formed of agricultural capability for production of
this Pachalic.
It is also worthy of observation that the modern canals differ mate
rially from the ancient ones in this respect: that whereas the latter were
formed by banks raised above the level of the country to be irrigated, so that
their bottoms were on a level with its surface, the former were cuts in the soil
forming some running brooks sunk beneath the surface. The consequence