more army
going forth to battle; once again columns of armed men sweep forth to
encounter similar columns, to kill and to capture within sight of the
Median Wall. And watching these columns of Englishmen and Highlanders,
of Hindus, Gurkhas and bearded Sikhs advancing to the coming conflict,
one felt the conviction that this struggle was being fought for the
sake of principles more lofty, for ends more permanent, for aims less
fugitive, for issues of higher service to the cause of humanity, than
those that had animated the innumerable and bloody conflicts of the
past.

The delta of the Tigris ends a few miles below Samarrah. That is to
say, whoever holds the district about Samarrah controls the waters of
the Tigris. For lower down in the Baghdad valaiyet the river in its
annual flood deposits so much mud on its bed as to raise itself in
course of centuries, above the level of the plain. Consequently,
artificial banks about three feet high have been built all along the
river, and were these to be cut during the flood season, the whole
surrounding country would be inundated and the spring crops destroyed.
This renders the districts of Samarrah of great natural importance,
and the fact that the Germans had completed a railway between Baghdad
and Samarrah, made it also desirable for the British to hold it.

The country here differs little from the rest of the Tigris valley,
the same level plain of loam and mud, a strip of two or three miles
nearest the river highly irrigated, and at this season, green with
young corn and barley; further afield the bare, brown, featureless
desert stretching out endlessly in every direction. Dawn and dusk
transform this shadowless wilderness into a land of the most wonderful
colour and atmosphere, but throughout the heat of the day the glare
and dust make it hateful to white men. And even in April, the shade
temperature runs to 110 degrees Fahrenheit, and where troops march in
this country without trees there is no shade from the sun, no escape
from the heat.

[Illustration: The Arch Of Ctesiphon.]

[Illustration: The Regiment Passing The Arch Of Ctesiphon En Route For
Baghdad, March 1917.]

[Illustration: Women Drawing Water From The River.]

[Illustration: "Gufas'" Or Circular Boats At Baghdad.]

[Illustration: The Entrance To The Mosque Kadhimain.]

Besides the Median Wall, there remain two outward and visible signs of
the older civilisation that flourished in happier times. There