sive rice-fields;
liquorice, wheat, barley and roses are also cultivated in places. But in
general the ancient canals on which the fertility of the country depends
have been allowed to go to ruin. The whole land is subject to inundations
which render settled agriculture impracticable, and the population consists
chiefly of nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes whose wealth consists in herds
of buffaloes, horses, sheep and goats. The principal exports are wool,
dates, cereals, gum, liquorice-root and horses. The climate is humid and
unhealthy. The population is estimated at about 200,000 almost exclusively
Moslems, of whom three-quarters are Shi'ites. There are about 4000 Jews and
perhaps 6000 Christians, among whom are reckoned the remains of the curious
sect of Sabaeans or Mandaeans, whose headquarters are in the neighbourhood
of Suk esh-Sheiukh.

The capital of the vilayet, also called Basra, is situated in 47deg 34' E.
long. and 32deg N. lat., near the western bank of the Shatt el-Arab, about
55 m. from the Persian Gulf. The town proper lies on the canal el-'Assar
about 1 1/2 to 2 m. W. of the Shatt el-Arab. There are no public buildings
of importance. The houses are meanly built, partly of sun-dried and partly
of burnt bricks, with flat roofs surrounded by parapets. The bazaars are
miserable structures, covered with mats laid on rafters of date trees. The
streets are irregular, narrow and unpaved. The greater part of the area of
the town is occupied by gardens and plantations of palm-trees, intersected
by a number of little canals, cleansed twice daily with the ebb and flow of
the tide, which rises here about 9 ft. These canals are navigated by small
boats, called _bellem_ (plur. _ablam_), resembling dug-outs in form, but
light and graceful. At high-tide, accordingly, the town presents a very
attractive appearance, but at low-tide, when the mud banks are exposed, it
seems dirty and repulsive, and the noxious exhalations are extremely
trying. The whole region is subject to inundations. The town itself is
unhealthy and strangers especially are apt to be attacked by fever. Basra
is the port of Bagdad, with which it has steam communication by an English
line of river steamers weekly and also by a Turkish line. The Shatt el-Arab
is deep and broad, easily navigable for ocean steamers, and there is weekly
communication by passenger steamer with India, while two or more freight
lines, which also take passengers, connect Basra direc