ion and
on going through the narrows a lot of amusement is obtained in
bargaining with them. The troops crowd on to the barges, as they bump
along the sides of the river banks which are only two or three feet
higher than the barge, and buy from the Arab women and children
running along the banks selling eggs and fowls; as the demand has
risen the prices have also advanced, and whereas at the opening of the
campaign one could buy a dozen eggs for fourpence, by January 1917, I
have seen officers pay twopence each or more. It is scarcely safe to
jump ashore, as any moment the boat may launch out again into the
middle of the stream, but when tied up by the bank waiting for
another boat to pass brisk business can be carried on. The boats going
up usually give way to those coming down, as the ones coming down may
have wounded and sick, and all must be done to get them down to
hospital as soon as possible, and so the time passes. At one end of
the Narrows is Ezra's Tomb, a building surmounted by a blue tiled
dome, which is evidently of no very ancient origin. We were informed
that the edifice had been erected in memory of Ezra by a wealthy Jew,
and that the place had become a sort of place of pilgrimage.
Clustering round it is a small Arab hamlet with the usual sprinkling
of Palm trees, and an abundance of dirt and filth, without which
surely the Arab could not exist.

[Illustration: The Officers Mess, Falahiyah, The Adjutant, Captain N.
M. RITCHIE, D.S.O., Studies Military Law.]

[Illustration: J. M. COWIE, T. HENDERSON, A. A. YOUNG (Killed), G. V.
STEWART, T. GILLESPIE (Killed).]

[Illustration: J. M. COWIE, G. V. STEWART, T. HENDERSON, J. H.
COTTERELL (Killed), H. W. BRUCE (Killed).]

[Illustration: At The Bar.]

[Illustration: River Scenes.]

At the northern end of the Narrows is the village of Qalat Sahib with
its minarets and lovely reflections. Then, Amara is sighted. We are
now one hundred and twenty miles from our base and this place makes a
kind of a half-way house between Basrah and Baghdad, and for the first
time the battalion lands in Mesopotamia. It was about three o'clock in
the afternoon that the order to disembark was received. Wonder was
expressed at the command as everyone knew that this was still a long
way behind the firing line, and was it the intention to march the rest
of the distance, and if so, why? as we were so much needed. All these
queries and doubts however were soon put an end to when it