. Nineveh and Babylon : a narrative of a second expedition to Assyria during the years 1849, 1850, & 1851. ched the headspring of the Hoi, the Jebours fired the jungle, and the flamessoon spread far and wide. Long after we had left the marshwe could hear the crackling of the burning reeds, and untilnightfall the sky was darkened by thick volumes of smoke. After a six hours ride we found ourselves upon the marginof a small lake, whose quiet surface reflected the deep blueof the cloudless sky. To the south of it rose a line of lowundulating hills, and to the east the furrowed mountain ofthe Sinj
. Nineveh and Babylon : a narrative of a second expedition to Assyria during the years 1849, 1850, & 1851. ched the headspring of the Hoi, the Jebours fired the jungle, and the flamessoon spread far and wide. Long after we had left the marshwe could hear the crackling of the burning reeds, and untilnightfall the sky was darkened by thick volumes of smoke. After a six hours ride we found ourselves upon the marginof a small lake, whose quiet surface reflected the deep blueof the cloudless sky. To the south of it rose a line of lowundulating hills, and to the east the furrowed mountain ofthe Sinjar. On all other sides was the desert, in which thissolitary sheet of water lay like a mirage. In the midst ofthe lake was a peninsula, joined to the mainland by a narrowcauseway, and beyond it a small island. On the former were VI.] KHATOUNIYAH AND ITS LAKE. 157 the ruins of a town, whose falling walls and towers weredoubled in the clear waters. It would be difficult to imaginea scene more calm, more fair, or more unlooked for in themidst of a wilderness. It was like fairy-land. - ^T-STT-JT^fi-SiSii^. Town and Lake of Khatouniyah. The small town of Khatouniyah was, until recently, inha-bited by a tribe of Arabs, but had been deserted on accountof a feud, arising out of the rival pretensions of two lake may be about six miles in circumference. Thewater, although brackish, like nearly all the springs in thispart of the desert, is not only drinkable, but, according tothe Bedouins, exceedingly wholesome for man and beast. Itabounds in fish, some of which are said to be of very con-siderable size. As we approached, the Bairakdar seeingsomething struggling in a shallow rode to it, and captured akind of barbel, weighing above twenty pounds. Waterfowland waders, of various kinds, congregate on the shores. Thestately crane and tlie graceful egret, with its snow-white 158 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [Chap. plumage and feathery crest, stand lazily on its margin: andthousands of ducks
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