'Handbook of Mesopotamia. Vol. I. 1918' [‎13] (22/568)

BOUNDARIES AND PHYSICAL FEATURES 18
parts is due to the slightness of the rainfall and the absence of
irrigation.
There are extensive permanent marshes in the southern part of
Irak. On the Euphrates great reedy broads have formed along the
Hindiyeh branch of the river between Museyib and Samaweh, and
lower down between Nasirlyeh, Kurna, and Basra. Along the Tigris
between Amara and Kurna there is much permanent marsh-land on
both sides of the river. The marshes on the left bank are continuous
with the marshes on the lower Karkeh in Arabistan territory. At
the northern end of Irak the salt lake of 'Aqarqnf is fed from the
Euphrates. Besides the permanent swamps (which rise and fall
with the season) the winter and spring floods of the rivers spill into
wide inundations, which generally dry up in the latter part of the
summer, but sometimes, when they have no adequate outlet, may
remain standing for some years. Many of them turn salt or brackish
before they disappear. These temporary flood-areas are to be found
both in northern and southern Irak and in southern Arabistan.
Their position and extent vary, within limits, from year to year.
(See furthex' p. 2o.) The local name for a temporary or permanent
expanse of marsh or open water is Ichor.
Where or when the country is not swamp, it is for the most part
open plain, scantily supplied with wells and water-holes, many of
which, being generally dependent on the winter and spring rainfall,
are dry in the summer or autumn. In spring much of this ' desert'
(which for the most part has an exceedingly fertile soil) is covered
with grass, at other seasons it bears little but camel-thorn.
Cultivation is almost entirely limited to the neighbourhood of the
rivers and canals. The country near the river-banks is intersected
by frequent channels, great and small, carrying more or less water,
or sometimes none at all, according to the season of the year. Some
of the larger canals, the remains of the former Mesopotamia!! irriga
tion-system, carry water in flood-time far into the interior of the
plain. Under Turkish rule the cutting of new channels was prac
tised by the Arabs at their pleasure. In years of good or fair rainfall
there is some inconsiderable cultivation, here and there, in places
where only rain-water is available.
(b) The Hill-country bordering t PZatam.—From the
Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. near Bandar Dilam up to the neighbourhood of Qasr-i-
Shlrin, a distance of some 450 miles, there extends a continuous belt
of hill-country, the ranges of which run in a general NW.-SE. direc
tion, and rise in succession from the plains of Arabistan and Irak up
to the high Persian plateau, where the valley-levels are some 4.000—
5,000 ft, above the sea,