"كتيّب بلاد الرافدين. المجلد II. ١٩١٧" [‎١‎٤‎٩] (٥٤٢/١٥٨)

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THE EUPHRATES—ROUTE IV C 149
large areas of marsh (see above). In the neighbourhood of the river
cereals and dates are cultivated. The moist character of much of the
country favours the growth of rice.
TheHilla Branch. —(a) Course. The Hilla Branch runs in a single
channel. The marshes have gradually shrunk towards the west,
and left the country on the Hilla Branch comparatively dry. The
branch, which has apparently of recent years abandoned the mouth
by which it used to join the other branch some 5 m. below Samaweh
in favour of a detour to the W., takes a general NNW. direction (as
followed up-stream) with many windings and a sharp bend W. some
20 m. above the Shatt Dighareh, and again NNW. about 10 m.
below Hilla.
(b) Navigation. The Hilla Branch is now navigable, in h.w. at
least, for large hellams, and probably for small steamers if the regu
lator be left open. In ].w. it might be navigable if as much water
as possible were turned down it. The lock at the regulator is 26 ft.
wide. The Branch could be deprived of all its water at any season
by the closing of the regulator. The Hilla Branch was unnavigable
before the completion of the new Hindiyeh Barrage: it was indeed dry
for some months every year. Before the barrage was finished the
channel was cleared of silt for 50 miles from its upper end, and
when the regulator was opened, 5 ft. of water had reached Hilla
within 38 hours. Unfortunately, all the 50 to 60 more or less
important distributary canals leaving the Hilla Branch between the
barrage and Diwaniyeh are without regulators, and the amount of
water taken off by them must so reduce the current in the branch that
its bed may be now to a great extent silted up again, and without
concerted effort by the tribes along the banks a recurrence of the
old trouble is inevitable. The Hilla Branch is narrow, the channel
being only 40-50 yds. wide between Samaweh and Imam Hamzeh,
and 90-95 yds. near Diwaniyeh. There are native irrigation dams
near Diwaniyeh and Hilla.
(c) Country along the Hilla Branch. On the E. side there is open
country throughout its course, which stretches away to the Shatt
el-Hai and the Tigris, with some pasture in spring and a little
cultivation supported by winter rains, but for most of the year bear
ing only camel-thorn. The plain is broken by frequent trenches of
old canals and by eminences, sometimes sand-hills, more often the
ruin-heaps of dead cities. Here and there are Mors, but the marshes
have probably decreased in the last 20 years. Thirty years ago
much of this country was irrigated by large canals from the Hilla
Branch, but some of these apparently failed with the drying of the
Hilla Branch. According to the latest information (1916), in the