'Field notes: Mesopotamia. General Staff, India. February, 1917.' [‎35r] (76/350)

of October, the hottest months being June to September, both
inclusive. In November the weather is cool, and in Decem
ber, January and February it is decidedly cold, especially up
stream, where the temperature not unfrequently falls below
freezing point. March and April are warm and unsettled,
with occasional thunder and duststorms.
There is no natural shade of any kind, for trees are scarce in
Mesopotamia. Indeed here are practically none but date-palms,
which give poor shade, and from Qurnah to Baghdad not even
these exist outside the palm gardens at Amarah and Ivut;
the wood at Kutniyeh (about half-way between Azizieh and
Ctesiphon) and a few other isolated clumps form the only ex
ceptions. Lack of trees means lack of wood both for building
and burning; the fibrous palm is ill-suited for the former pur
pose, and for the latter it provides only the “karab,” that is
the thick end of the palm-branch cut off near the stem—at
best this is only moderately good fuel. Thus nearly all wood
(including firewood) has to be imported from India and else
where. The question of arboriculture has been taken in hand
and experiments have been made, but there is so much sub
soil water near the surface that most exotic trees get water
logged and die.
To the lack of wood must be added an almost total absence
of stone, which has therefore also to be imported. Below
Baghdad stone is found only at Samawa and at the Jabal
Sinam, an isolated volcanic hill some 80 miles south-west of
Basrah. There are consequently no metalled roads in the
country beyond those made by Indian Expeditionary Force
“D,” and all the local houses are built of sun-dried brick.
These houses are of little benefit to the Army, because they
are rarely where they are most wanted and because the majority
of them are most unsuitable as billets. They are wretched
hovels, badly ventilated, without water, without proper cook
ing-ranges and without sanitary arrangements of any kind;
before the British came to Iraq the open street was the public
latrine of the lower orders. The best houses consist of a quad
rangular shell of rooms built generally in two storeys round
a square courtyard, which slopes towards a small hole in 'the
centre. The hole is the entrance to the cesspool and when
the sub-soil water rises during the flood-season the courtyard
is flooded, as may be the lower rooms as well. When the water
subsides it disappears through the hole, and a foul stench