The
Town Is Well Supplied With Provisions, Which Are Brought Down The River
Tigris From Mosul, In Diarbekir, Or Mesopotamia, Where Stood The Ancient
City Of Nineveh.
These provisions, and various other kinds of goods, are
brought down the river Tigris on rafts of wood, borne up by a great
number of goat-skin bags, blown up with wind like bladders.
When the
goods are discharged, the rafts are sold for fuel, and letting the wind
out of the goat skins, they carry them home again upon asses, to serve
for other voyages down the river.
[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.
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