hollow out a series of lakes along its borders,
the largest of which, Bahr-i-Nedjif, is shut in on three sides by steep
cliffs, and rises or falls periodically with the floods. A broad canal,
which takes its origin in the direction of Hit at the beginning of the
alluvial plain, bears with it the overflow, and, skirting the lowest
terraces of the Arabian chain, runs almost parallel to the Euphrates. In
proportion as the canal proceeds southward the ground sinks still lower,
and becomes saturated with the overflowing waters, until, the banks
gradually disappearing, the whole neighbourhood is converted into a
morass. The Euphrates and its branches do not at all times succeed in
reaching the sea: they are lost for the most part in vast lagoons to
which the tide comes up, and in its ebb bears their waters away with
it. Reeds grow there luxuriantly in enormous beds, and reach sometimes
a height of from thirteen to sixteen feet; banks of black and putrid mud
emerge amidst the green growth, and give off deadly emanations. Winter
is scarcely felt here: snow is unknown, hoar-frost is rarely seen,
but sometimes in the morning a thin film of ice covers the marshes, to
disappear under the first rays of the sun.*

* Loftus attributes the lowering of the temperature during
the winter to the wind blowing over a soil impregnated with
saltpetre. "We were," he says, "in a kind of immense
freezing chamber."

[Illustration: 027.jpg THE MARSHES ABOUT THE CONFLUENCE OF THE KERKHA
AND TIGRIS.]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch by J. Dieulafoy.
For six weeks in November and December there is much rain: after this
period there are only occasional showers, occurring at longer and longer
intervals until May, when they entirely cease, and the summer sets in,
to last until the following November. There are almost six continuous
months of depressing and moist heat, which overcomes both men and
animals and makes them incapable of any constant effort.* Sometimes
a south or east wind suddenly arises, and bearing with it across the
fields and canals whirlwinds of sand, burns up in its passage the little
verdure which the sun had spared. Swarms of locusts follow in its train,
and complete the work of devastation. A sound as of distant rain is at
first heard, increasing in intensity as the creatures approach. Soon
their thickly concentrated battalions fill the heavens on all sides,
flying with slow and uniform motion at a g