in a highly interesting paper in the Geographical Journal for
July Lieutenant-Commander A. S. Elwell-Sutton de-scribes • how he took H.M.S. Caddisfly,' a river gunboat of 100 tons, up the Tigris to Tekrit, 150 miles above Baghdad, in January, 1918. No vessel of such dimensions is known to have navigated the Tigris so far beyond Baghdad before that time, and the author's voyage was decidedly adventurous. The vessel drew only three feet of water, but the channels of that depth are narrow and tortuous, and are interrupted at intervals by ruined brick dams, dating probably from the Assyrian age. The river rises and falls with unaccountable rapidity, and there is a very swift current. Nevertheless the Caddisfly ' got to Tekrit and back -without damage and her officers made a survey of the river. The author thinks that the upper Tigris might easily be made navigable if it were properly charted and if portions of the dams were blown up, but he is inclined to doubt whether there is much need for river traffic until the desert on either bank is restored to cultivation.
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