'IRAQ AND THE PERSIAN GULF' [‎67r] (138/862)

DESCRIPTION OF THE LAND
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tobacco give good yields; there are date-groves round Khanaqin and
Qizil Ribat, also orchards of pomegranates, figs, and lemons; willows
and poplars are occasionally found along the streams, but the general
appearance of the landscape is treeless. The Jabal Darawishka
and the Jabal Qizil Ribat are ranges of low hills, rising about 400 feet
above the plain, which though intersected by small ravines are not
difficult to cross.
On the right bank of the Diyala the slopes of the Aq Su watershed,
which in one place reaches 3,500 feet above sea-level, are scored by
gravelly torrent beds, but few contain any water, except after rain.
There are few permanent settlements and most of the country in the
north is only useful for pasture, though there are occasional rain-fed
plots of cultivation and their number could be increased, since the
soil is not infertile. Opposite the Khanaqin plain three parallel folds
appear above the alluvium: Jabal Shakal, Jabal Kumar, and Jabal
Jubba. The Jabal Shakal, or Kushki-Zangi (‘dry hill’), has a serrated
ridge with gypseous outcrops, rising about 600 feet above the plain at
one point but sinking again below the plain north of Kifri. There are
exposures containing coal of poor quality at the north-western end.
The northern slopes of both the Jabal Shakal and the Jabal Kumar
are steeper than the southern, and they fall to parallel valleys which
afford easy routes between the Diyala and Kifri. South of the Jabal
Kumar is a broad marshy plain watered in the south by a perennial
distributary of the Diyala which passes through a gap in the low
Jabal Jubba and irrigates the plain of Qara Tepe. This gap is used by
the railway from Baghdad to Kirkuk.
The Hills and Plains of Kifri and Qara Tepe. The Jabal Shakal is
continued north-west of Kifri by the Kifri hills (Kifri Dagh, Jabal
Kharach, and Naft Dagh). The drainage of the country to the north
is collected by two main streams. These unite in the plains about
3 miles south of Kifri which gives its name to the western and to the
united stream. A third tributary, the Kura Chai, rising in the clay-
plain of Dasht-i-Pataki close to the Aq Su, breaks through the Kifri
hills north-west of the town, crosses the broad Kifri plain between
the Kifri hills and the parallel Jabal Manzil, and joins the Kifri Su at
the eastern foot of this range. The river then cuts south-westwards
across the strike of the rocks between the Jabal Jubba and Jabal
Manzil to enter the plain of Qara Tepe. There it is joined by the
drainage of the trough between the Jabal Manzil and Jabal Hamrin
and the combined river, now known as the Narin Chai, meanders
south-eastwards along the foot of the latter, with its bed cut from 20