[Footnote 3: It may be proper to remark, as not very distinctly marked
here, though expressed afterwards in the text, that Bagdat is on the
east side of the Tigris, whereas the plain, or desert of ancient
Babylon, is on the west, between that river and the Euphrates.--E.]

The buildings here are mostly of brick, dried in the sun, as little or
no stone is to be found, and their houses are all low and flat-roofed.
They have no rain for eight months together, and hardly any clouds in
the sky by day or night. Their winter is in November, December, January,
and February, which is almost as warm as our summer in England. I know
this well by experience, having resided, at different times, in this
city for at least the space of two years. On coming into the city from
Feluchia, we have to pass across the river Tigris on a great bridge of
boats, which are held together by two mighty chains of iron.

From this place we departed in flat-bottomed boats, which were larger
and more strongly built than those on the Euphrates. We were
twenty-eight days also in going down this river to Basora, though we
might have gone in eighteen days, or less, if the water had been higher.
By the side of the river there stand several towns, the names of which
resemble those of the prophets of the Old Testament. The first of these
towns is called _Ozeah_, and another _Zecchiah_. One day's journey
before we came to Basora, the two rivers unite, and there stands, at the
junction, a castle belonging to the Turks, called _Curna_, where all
merchants have to pay a small custom. Where the two rivers join, their
united waters are eight or nine miles broad; and here also the river
begins to ebb and flow, the overflowing of the water rendering all the
country round about very fertile in corn, rice, pulse, and dates.