'Field notes: Mesopotamia. General Staff, India. February, 1917.' [‎33r] (72/350)

57
are insignificantly small areas, only a few hundreds of yards
square.
The rivers are kept within their banks only by means of
marginal dams, or “ bunds, ” constructed almost throughout
their length from the headwaters to the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. . These
“ bunds ” are composed of loose earth just heaped up at the
edge of the river, and they are generally less than 6 feet broad
and only three or four feet high. When one goes up the rivers
during the floods and observes that the surface of the water
on which the steamer floats is a foot or two above the level
of the surrounding country, the importance of the bund and
its apparent unsuitability for its work strike one with great
force. In peace time the bunds are a source of constant anxiety
to the Arabs, for a broken bund, probably not noticed until
the river has pierced it, must be repaired at once if miles of
land are not to be put under water. In 'war-time the bunds
are of even more vital importance, for whole tracts of country
may be rendered untenable by the judicious cutting of one
of them, or a flank may be secured or a line of advance barred
by the same simple device.
In view of the length of the bunds and of their imperfect
construction, it is not surprising that the confinement of the
w^ater leaves much to be desired and that there are many large
areas of marsh and shallow lake close to the rivers. These
areas one would naturally expect to find actually contiguous
to the river banks, but it is a remarkable fact, not yet fully
explained, that the chief lakes and marshes are not contiguous
to the rivers but anything from half a mile to four miles away
from them, the land between being dry and not marshy except
during prolonged bad weather. These narrow strips or
belts ” of land between river and marsh are one of the most
noteworthy features of the country, for it is to them that mili
tary operations are usually of necessity confined, with the
consequence that direct frontal attacks over absolutely flat
ground, without a vestige of covers are so frequently unavoid
able. This, in itself, is a great difficulty, but there are other
factors which add to the complexity of the problem. Thus
the dry belts are intersected by creeks and irrigation canals
that hamper free movement and are generally sufficiently
broad and deep to necessitate bridging. They are of all shapes
and sizes and are so numerous that, seen from an aeroplane
in the flood season, they resemble the costal bones of a fish