TCD MS 10515 folio 125 verso
Sunday June 25th 1916: Nasiriyah
Heat is at last really intense. Temperature reaches 116°F. The sun is powerful the moment it rises. The North wind has failed; how we long for the “Shimaal”. The British troops cannot bear this severe heat; they are filling the hospitals with cases of sunstroke. Our men though bred in the cool hills, stand it better.
Nobody can boast of much energy; I can just summon up sufficient enthusiasm to wander in the evenings to the bank of the river, watch its peaceful flow and the gentle eddies of its majestic stream. Its waters swarm with fish that splash its placid surface into wide rings & ripples and on its banks, snakes and tortoises climb up from its muddy stream. Terns feed in num-