TCD MS 3416 page 43
[June 1916]
height of 5000 feet, covered with grass and the “ilex” or holme oak; it is from the slopes of these hills that the wood fuel is collected for working the engines on the section of the railway which runs through Aleppo to Ras-el-Ain, as no coal is obtainable. Here and there on the highest peaks still remained patches of unmelted snow. [ ] There had been an outbreak of cholera at Islahie and we were therefore closely examined; for this examination we were ordered to fall in, and a very stout and short doctor examined out tongues and made us say “Ah” in turn, at the same time poising himself on tip toe with the aid of a large, and very cheap looking sword to examine our throats! Our clothes were then placed in a steam heater, and this proved an excellent opportunity for the Turk hospital orderlies to avail themselves of a really good shirt or two. But still it was pleasing to see that Medical precautions were being taken at all. At this place we picked up a British soldier in a dreadful state of neglect; he had been taken prisoner 6 months previously, and had eventually reached the Hospital there – he had practically no clothes and