TCD MS 10516 folio 7 recto
[25th July 1916] to dredge a navigable channel. The river then became narrow and deep, and enclosed in thick marshes with tall, waving reeds. They extended as far as the eye could reach and were dotted with the mud huts of the despised Arabs of the marshes.
Wednesday: July 26th 1916: Basra.
On to Kurna early this morning. The river continued through the endless marshes; the reeds were like another desert; the scattered huts of the Arabs, appearing above the waving waste, stand in the most miserable surroundings of any habitations I have ever seen. Reeds and marsh on every side enveloped in a moist steamy miasm. How do these people live? Fish seem to be the one edible product of the marshes, though the Arabs may possibly obtain some milk from the small herds of water-buf-