"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" [ظ‎‎٢‎٧] (٣١٢/٥٩)

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By making a detom* of some eight miles to the south this swamp might he
partially avoided. This is the regular caravan route, and the path is dry,
or nearly so, in summer. From Ruz to Mendali the bearing across the desert
is almost due east.
There was good grass on the plain for the first two miles after leaving the
marsh, but it got more burnt up and disappeared as we went on : earlier in the
spring there was plenty. Mendali was visible five hours before we arrived as a
mirage.
At 21 miles we forded the Nuffut River, a stream of brackish water
which flows east of Mendali and joins the Gunjir to the south. It rises
between the Jabal Luti Baghcha and Jabal Daimuri. The banks were lined
with sedges, and the sh*eam flowed in a narrow bed with steep banks 20 feet
high. We met a caravan of 30 camels with dates from Mendali on their
way to Baghdad.
From the ford we crossed a bare plain covered with saline incrustation,
through which several small brackish streams flowed towards the Gunjir.
lor the last two miles before reaching Mendali some wheat crops and
grass were passed, and at 2-45 we reached the date gardens which surround
the town.
Mendali.— This is a place of 1.500 houses built of mud and sun-dried
bricks, in the middle of extensive date and fruit gardens, which form an oblong
round it some 3 miles long and broad ; the houses are scattered on some
low mounds in the centre.
The gardens are watered by numerous canals from the Gunjir River, which
emerges from a gap in the hills some 5 miles to the north-east.
Oranges, pomegranates, lemons, almonds, figs, and dates are the chief
fruits. Ihe only trade of the place is in dates and dried fruits with
Baghdad. The dates are said to be especially good here. Saddles and horse
furniture, numdahs, and felt coats were made in the bazar.
. d ; * te gardens are enclosed by a mud wall round the outer edge,
some 20 feet high with loopholed towers at intervals ; each garden also
is partitioned off with high walls.
The district is a quiet one, as the Arabs do not raid here now, and the
Kurds from over the border only at rare intervals.
There is a Persian Consul here : he told us the route we intended to take
was absolutely impracticable without an escort of 100 men !
There is a kaimmakam and a few zaptiyahs quartered. The• inhabitants
are a mixture of Kurds, Persians, Arabs and Turks; principally the first
named. Most of the inhabitants are Sunni Musalmans, but there is one
mahaila of 200 houses exclusively Shiah.
ABearing 185°, and 4| miles distant is Kazania, a village of 500
houses on the bank of the Gunjir surrounded by a large patch of date gardens,
the inhabitants of which are ail Shiahs. &
. Ghaib. Bearing 250°, and 5 miles distant is Ghaib, a village of 300 houses
in a smaller patch of date trees. Both these plantations are surrounded by
mud walls. Good grass grew on the plain to the south, and a few flocks of
sneep were seen.
The climate in summer is very unhealthy, and stagnant pools in the
gardens and general want of sanitation must make it more so. It was
severely visited by the plague in 1884.
The sun was powerful at noon, temperature 80°, with a cool north-west wind,
whieli made marchmg pleasant. On the 24th it rained heavily in the after-