"بلاد فارس والشأن الفارسي بقلم جورج ناثانييل كرزون، عضو البرلمان." [‎٣‎٣‎٧] (٧٤٨/٤٢٤)

S"S€
THE KARUN RIVEU 337
its construction was presumably to open a communication between
the Karun, which then entered the Persian Gulf by an independent
mouth, and the Shat-el-Arab, and thus to promote trade between
Arabistan and the then existing predecessors of the Turkish ports
of Busrah and Baghdad. Where it flows into the Shat-el-Arab,
the Haffar Canal is about a quarter of a mile in width, with a depth
of from twenty to thirty feet. The town of Mohammerah is
situated upon its right or north bank, at a distance of a little more
than a mile from the point of confluence; although the new
buildings recently erected by the Persian Government in con
sequence of the opening of the river to foreign trade, and consist
ing of a governor's house and a warehouse, with a primitive quay
made of palm trunks in front, have been placed on the shore in
the angle between the two streams. The comfort of the future
governor had not been forgotten, for a bathhouse, heated by a
furnace, was appended to his mansion. In the interval before trade
begins, the new quay, which is about fifty yards long, was being
turned to practical use, having recently been ploughed and sown.
On the opposite or southern side of the Haffar Canal are the ruins
of an old Persian fort and castle, where the sheikh used to reside
fifty years ago, and which, in co-operation with larger works on the
northern bank, attempted to dispute the entrance of the river with
the British in 1857, but was very speedily silenced and knocked
to pieces by our guns. In the past year (1891) infantry and
artillery barracks have been built upon this site by the Persian
Government.
Here the British India steamer stopped her engines to put me
down. At Fao the Turkish Custom-house officer had come on
Ottoman board, and it was thought likely that he might raise an
amenities objection to the vessel stopping at Mohammerah. to allow
of my leaving her, although he could have no legal claim whatever
to do so; Mohammerah being a Persian port, and the Turks having
no right of control either over the boats of the British India
Company or over the opposite side of the Shat-el-Arab. This
forecast of the probable tactics of Turkish officialdom was not
entirely mistaken, because, although the individual in question
made no sign when I disembarked, he subsequently lodged a formal
complaint upon arriving at Busrah, and swore that the captain had
put me down in the face of his vehement protest. Upon this the
Custom-house at Busrah fined the vessel an act of impertinent
VOL. II.