"كتيّب بلاد الرافدين. المجلد II. ١٩١٧" [‎٤‎٦‎٣] (٥٤٢/٤٧٤)

CONTROL OF EUPHRATES WATER 463
accompanied by a breaching of the river bank above, would cause
extensive floods in this region, but probably not such as would reach
so far N. as Baghdad. The floods would probably extend to the
Tigris about opposite Ctesiphon, and thence downwards.
The closing of the Hindiyeh Barrage in the flood would
cause such an alteration in conditions that it is impossible to say to
what distance the results would make themselves felt. So large
a volume of water would be diverted that it might quickly make
itself a new river-bed, or beds, and thereby lessen the areas liable to
flood. (The new bed, or beds, would probably discharge into the
present Hilla Branch.)
However, in any case, it is safe to say that the closing ot the
barrage in the flood season would cause very widespread flooding:
and it is fairly safe to predict that it would make a large belt of
country between the Euphrates and the Tigris impracticable to a
land-force operating between the two rivers above Kut.
For the purpose of causing a flood to impede movement, the
closing of the barrage in the high-water season would probably be
an unnecessarily violent measure. It would be easier to direct water
through particular breaches to particular areas by the
quantity passing through the barrage.
C onditions from the H indiyeh B aerage to S amaweh
The Hindiyeh Barrage and the Hilla
the Hindiyeh Barrage the Euphrates bifurcates into two great
branches (the Hindiyeh and the Hilla), which meet again 2-8 miles
above Samaweh. It appears that from very early times some such
division of the Euphrates has existed, the mam volume of water
having passed at some periods down the western, at others down
the eastern branch. Some forty years ago the Hilla Branch carried
by far the greater supply and was known as the Euphrates , while
the Hindiyeh was only a 'canal'. Then the Hindiyeh head
gradually widened (partly as the consequence of the closing ot the
Saqlawiyeh), till it took the larger portion of the river water. This
process continued, until the Hilla Branch was left dry m the low
season. The Turkish Government constructed a weir (the Old
Barrage'), about f mile below the site of the New Barrage. But
this weir burst in 1903, and failed to check the drying of the Hilla
Branch, though it continued to be (and probably still is) an obstacle
to navigation. The New Barrage, completed in 1913, lies about
6 miles below Museyib. The old head of the Hilla, situated about