nd digging and towing we managed to make seven miles after
fourteen hours' work that first day. Night found us close beside an Arab
village, from which I got a great bowl of buffalo milk to put into the
men's coffee. Early in the morning we were off again. The going was so
much better that we were able to make Baghdad at ten o'clock in the
evening.

IV

SKIRMISHES AND RECONNAISSANCES ALONG THE KURDISH FRONT

We spent a few days making repairs and outfitting before starting off
again. This time our destination was Deli Abbas, the headquarters of the
Thirteenth Division. The town is situated in the plains below the
foot-hills of the Persian Mountains, on the banks of the Khalis Canal,
some seventy miles north-east of Baghdad. At dawn we passed out of the
north gate, close to where General Maude is buried, and whirled across the
desert for thirty miles to Bakuba, a prosperous city on the banks of the
Diyala. From the junction of the greater Zab down to Kurna, where the
Euphrates joins, this stream is the most important affluent of the Tigris.
It was one of those bright, sparkling mornings on which merely to be alive
and breathe is a joy. We passed a number of caravans, bringing carpets and
rugs from Persia, or fruit and vegetables from the rich agricultural
district around Bakuba. The silks manufactured here are of a fine quality
and well known throughout the country.

After passing the big aerodrome near the town, the going became very bad;
we struggled along through the village of Deltawa, in and out of
unfathomable ditches. The rivers were in flood, and we ran into lakes and
swamps that we cautiously skirted. Dark overtook us in the middle of a
network of bogs, but we came upon an outpost of Welsh Fusiliers and spent
the night with them. We had smashed the bottom plate of one of the cars,
so that all the oil ran out of the crank-case, but with a side of the
ever-useful kerosene tin we patched the car up temporarily and pushed off
at early dawn. Our route wound through groves of palms surrounding the
tumble-down tomb of some holy man, occasional collections of squalid
little huts, and in the intervening "despoblado" we would catch sight of a
jackal crouching in the hollow or slinking off through the scrub. Deli
Abbas proved a half-deserted straggling town which gave evidence of having
once seen prosperous days. Some Turkish aeroplanes heralded our arrival.

In front of us rose the Jebel Hamrin--Red Hills--bey