"كتيّب بلاد الرافدين. المجلد II. ١٩١٧" [‎١‎٢‎٨] (٥٤٢/١٣٧)

128
KIVEE ROUTES
Right Bank
Total
distance
to the N. being thin and scattered. It proceeded about
W. by N. for m. to a point where twenty tall isolated
palms, about 700 yds. to the N., were passed, and it then
bent N. by W., and continued in this direction for 1^ m.,
running parallel to the reeds on the SW. and at a distance
of about ^ m. from them. When due W. of Beni Huteit
Island the channel turned W. by S. and struck across the
lake in this general direction for about 11m. In this 11-m.
stretch the width of open channel was about ?> m., and
there is no clearly defined channel bed. The details of the
channel may by now have altered considerably. Depth,
Sept. 1, 1916, l,|-2 ft. The water shallows towards the
N. and S., where the island-villages are situated.
The course winds through reeds in a northerly direction,
leaving the mouth of the Mezlaq Channel and the Mezlaq
villages on the port bow. For the Mezlaq Channel see note
at the end of section ii below.
Channel in 1915 here turned NW. into the Haqiqeh
Channel. At this point occurred the worst shallows of the
entire route, soundings in a low river occasionally shoaling
to 18 in. The channel was here some 400 yds. broad. As
it proceeded W., it narrowed to about 200 yds. For some
4 m. it was marked on the N. by a narrow belt of low reeds,
and on the S. by thick reed-beds extending to the dry land,
on which are scattered the numerous villages and mud
towers of the district of Jawabir. Soundings along the
reach were 5-6 ft. in June 1915, and 3-4 ft. two months
later. There is a 2-3 knot current during flood season. #
Hereabouts is apparently the flood season's western limit
of the Hammar Lake. Near this point Snfadiyeh. Creek,
navigable for hellams, joins the Haqiqeh. It leaves the Ma
Shalreh Creek (see m. 64|) 4 m. down the latter's course
and takes off a large proportion of its water. #
From here the course bears SW., and the channel, which
from this point westwards is more commonly known as the
Gurmat Safheh, is clearly defined and is about 180 yds.
wide.
# The remains of the Haqiqeh. Dam. See introduction
to this route, p. 114, and Appendix C, p. 469. A navigable
channel, 75 ft. wide, has been cut through this dam, and the
Miles
89i
41