A Dweller in Mesopotamia / Being the Adventures of an Official Artist in the Garden of Eden

und on th

MEN FRO

ttlers to turn what was partially a desert and partially a swamp into fields of world-famed fertility." The civilizations of Babylon and Assyria owed their very life to the science of watering the land, and even in the later times of Haroun Alraschid their great systems had b

a desert except for the regions in the immediate vicinity of the rivers. You can go westwards from Baghdad to the Euphrates, and every mile or so you will have to cross earthworks, not unlike irregular railway embankments, show

s of Armenia. The hotter the season and the more necessary a plentiful supply of water, the greater is the amount brought down. The rivers, however, when they reach the flat alluvial plain between the region round about Baghdad and the Persian Gulf, when left to themselves are always bringing down a deposit and ch

ES ON TH

of great canals, lead the water where they wanted it. Large reservoirs and lakes for storing surplus water were made

vel river at Dura. It stretched southwards for about 250 miles along the left bank of the Tigris. It was the neglect of this canal that led to a fearful catastrophe which m

ied off by them in times of flood, helped to swell this river till, bursting its banks, it inundated the whole country. T

anary to the world, it is to the West that it must turn. Science and machinery shall again make the waste places to be inhabited and the desert blossom as the rose. Thus s

d give them a send-off. Brown had no difficulty in getting three weeks' leave to accompany me in some of my expeditions to gather up such fragments as remained of naval subjects on the rivers. We determined on a voyage of discovery up the Euphrates in sear

THE INLAND WA

out in a somewhat rough-and-ready way, with not a little discomfort owing to a sp

hed her way along, slightly "down by the head," as if she had suddenly thought of something and was putting on a spurt to make up for lost time. I cannot lay hands on a sketch of her, but the

ia-one of the Old Contemptibles. Armed with a three-pounder which caused such havoc to her decks when fired that it is reported

oker produced a cylinder alleged to be in cuneiform writing. A translation of the inscription proved beyond doubt th

and Odin, the Stunt Armada came to Ezra's Tomb at twilight. The river was high and the land in between the great bends was a maze of rushes and lagoons. Hospital hulks like Noah's arks, little steamers, and loaded mahailas jostled each other i

d tugs were doing their best to escape the Nemesis that awaited them. Then the sloops opened fire, and a desultory cannonade was kept up as it grew darker and darker

A'S

ive in. The blue-tiled dome surrounded by palms, one of which is bending down in a manner stra

impses of waterside verdure and rush-covered shores. To the arch?ologist and the historian Mugheir is intensely interesti

approaching the coast at the mouth of the river Euphrates, the Tigris flowing-out some fifty miles further east. D

eded about 150 miles, and left Ur a nondesc

a matter of fact it was one of his attempts at a picturesque approach-for my benefit. Brown has a vivid imagination, and sees so clearly in his mind how a place ought to be that he really believes it is so. In this case he pictured us approaching Hillah and looking down upon mi

e palm trees. As we soon encountered some palm trees every few yards we wondered whether they intended to be humorous. I don't think they did, however. The optimism of you-can't-possibly-miss-it type

g down by palm trees as directed, but to no purpose. We struck the river bank again after much wandering and kept to it, hoping the mist would clear. A man in a goufa appeared from nowhere and floated away out of sight into

ll

but we succeeded in getting over at last and eventually found the

bly entertained or given greater facilities for getting about in a most fascinating region o

t for romance and mystery there is no piece of the world more fraught with meaning than this site of the city of Nebuch

n, is fallen, and is become