'Handbook of Mesopotamia. Vol. III. 1917' [‎12] (21/432)

12
INTRODUCTION
supplies are almost wholly lacking. Moreover, where the Tigris
breaks through the Jebel Hamrln, the route has to turn aside from
the river and runs some 38 m. through desert very scantily supplied
with water. There is grazing on the route in spring, but fuel is very
scarce. The Jebel Hamrln, which is crossed SE. of Qal'ah Sherghat,
is broken and rugged, and there are stretches of broken ground else
where, e.g. near Tekrit. Nevertheless, before the war the route had
been traversed by light wheeled vehicles occasionally, and once even
by a motor. On the 1. bank there was no regular route over the
whole distance from Baghdad to Mosul, though caravans travelled
sometimes on that side of the river between Baghdad and Samarra,
between Samarra and Dur, and between the Great Zab near its
mouth and Mosul. The chief disadvantage of the 1. bank as a line
for a through route from Baghdad to Mosul appears to be the
necessity of crossing near their mouths the three large tributaries of
the Tigris, the 'Adheim, and the two Zabs. The Tigris was bridged
before the war at Baghdad, Samarra, and Mosul.
There was much down-stream raft-traffic on the Middle Tigris
before the war, but sailing vessels did not as a rule go up-stream to
Samarra. The possibilities of steamer navigation between Samarra
and Mosul are very uncertain. The conditions appear to be more
unfavourable than those on the Euphrates above Hit. (See
III E.)
(c) The Salahiyeh— KirJouJc Line. —The disadvantages of the Tigris
line mentioned above, and also the former insecurity of the Tigris
Valley, have brought into existence a caravan-route from Baghdad'
to Mosul along the foot-hills of the Kurdish mountains, where there
are a few towns (Salahiyeh, Kirkuk, Altun Koprti, Erbil, besides
a number of large villages) and a certain amount of cultivation, so
that sufficient supplies are generally obtainable in normal times for
fair-sized parties of troops or travellers. Before the present war this
road apparently needed only slight improvements here and there,
and some bridging (particularly at the Great Zab) to make it passable
throughout for guns and carts. In spring, troops might be held up
bv floods on a number of streams which at other times would be
easily fordable. Water is apparently abundant in spring and sufficient
at other seasons. There is good grazing on the route in spring. (See
Boute 25a.)
Lateral Communications between the main routes from Baghdad
into Upper Mesopotamia may be summarized as follows :—
(a) Communications across Lower JesireJ —These include the routes