'Routes in Arabia' [‎45] (78/852)

m
Route No. U~contd. :
always changing. At low water only about 13 feet would be
found. At high water spring tides, vessels drawing 21 feefc
6 inches have scraped through the soft mud. There is usually
a ten-foot tide at the bar and an f eight-foot tide as far up as
Basrah. Sloops, such as the Espiegle, can ascend to 7 miles
above Ezra's Tomb when the Tigris is in flood.
KURNA 43f 43|m. Kuma is a place of
700 houses on the
. west bank of the
ligris, on the actual promontory at the junction with the old
bed of the Euphrates.
There are a few two-storeyed brick houses on the bank, with
gardens and date plantations. It was formerly the seat of a
Kaimakam under Basrah.
There is a telegraph office; the two lines from Baghdad,
one by the Euphrates, and the other by the Tigris, join here.
From Basrah to Kuma are two wires on iron poles.
The date plantations extend some 4 miles above Kurna,
but after that only a few solitary clusters are to be seen until
near Baghdad.
Above Kurna enter the great marshes of the Tigris and
Euphrates which extend between the rivers, and as far as
Hawlzeh to the east.
In spring and early summer the country is under water,
with little visible but tall reeds and sedges.
The marshes to the east are formed by the overflow of the
Karkheh, Tib, and Dawairij rivers from the Pusht-i-Kuh moun
tains. One outlet called by the Europeans the Hadd, but known
locally as the Jahalah (always pronounced Chahalah), runs out
of the Tigris just above 'Amarah. Another the Swaib, the main
outlet of the Karkheh, enters the Shatt-al-'Arab about 4 miles
below Kurna.
AL- AZAIR 28|m. 72^ m. Pass Al-'Azair (Ezra's
Tomb), a group of build
ings on the west bank,
an important place of pilgrimage for Jews Above this the
river flows in a winding channel through the Narrows, with
several sharp turns demanding careful navigation. The
channel is deep with mud banks fairly firm.