"استطلاعات في بلاد الرافدين وكردستان وشمال غرب بلاد فارس ولرستان في الفترة من أبريل إلى أكتوبر ١٨٨٨، كتبها المقدم ف. ر. مونسيل، فرع الاستخبارات. يوجد مجلدان. المجلد الأول: تقرير سردي ووصف للمدن الكبرى والطرق المؤدية منها. شيملا: فرع الاستخبارات، إدارة قائد الإمداد والتموين، ١٨٩٠" [و‎‎١‎٢] (٣١٢/٢٨)

■courtyard is a tablet to the memory of the members of Colonel Chesney’s
■expedition in 1836 drowned in the wreck of the Euphrates. Coal is stored here
for the Turkish river steamers, and there is a small repairing shed dock, the
latter being of a deep excavation in the mud with a dam at one end.
Strewn about in the mud are pieces of a large dredger or digger bought
by the Turks on the completion of the Suez Canal. It is said to have cost
£12(J,000, was never even put together, and is now lying useless from rust
and decay. It was meant for digging and opening up some of the old canals
between the Euphrates and the Tigris.
The river is encroaching on the right bank, and threatens to sweep away
the old liesidency in a few years.
Routes from Busra.
To Najd .—The caravan road to Najd, and through Arabia to Mecca, starts
from Busra. It traverses sandy desert most of the way with few wells. It
is called 10 days to Najd on camels, 10 or 12 hours per diem, and 20 days to
Mecca.
Kouait is S5 miles distant across a sandy desert with few wells. Camels
take two days, and caravans can reach there in three days.
lo Shustar and Dlzful .—There is a route through Hawaizah to Shustar and
Dizful. It (S two days (68 miles) to Hawaizah, the stage being Jnfair, about
half-way, where is a small well, but no village. Water is scarce and bad in the
hot weather.
The country is a bare sandy desert, parched and dry in summer, but liable
to floods from November to May. At 31 miles some ruins called Kushk
Busra are passed, and at 37 miles are more ruins called Kushk Hawaizah.
From Hawaizah to Dizful (80 miles) is over a fiat alluvial plain, fertile,
but uninhabited, except by nomad Arab and Lur tribes. It is watered by
several canals from the Karun and Kerkhah.
River Steamers on the Tigris.
There are three English and five Turkish steamers employed in the Tigris
navigation.
The former belong to the Euphrates and Tigris Steam Navigation Com
pany (Messrs. Lynch Brothers).
According to the original firman granted to this Company, only two of these
■steamers are permitted to be employed at the same time.
Ihe steamers are the Khalifa, Medjidieh, and the Blosse Lynch.
They are all similar in shape and construction, and have been recently
built of steel, with powerful engines (100 H. P.) and side paddle wheels.
The dimensions of the Khalifa are 230 feet in length and 31 feet beam.
The construction is like that of American river steamers, with wide
Construction. sponsons and a double passenger deck, one over the
other.
There are two steam capstans, one in the bow end another in the stern,
used for hauling the vessel off when it gets aground in the low season.
The rudder is exceptionally long, and powerful steam steering gear is used
so as to be able to turn rapidly a vessel of such a shape, the draught being
small compared with the length. Steering can be done also by the paddles,
as each is worked by a separate set of engines.
The sponsons, 6 feet wide, extend all round the vessel, and increase the deck
space considerably.