The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-10-19

forward and the Turks scattered to- ward Bagdad in boats. The town or Amara was reach and taken. The onlx town now remaining with the Turk s was Nasariyeh. on the Euphrates Starting from kurna the British force began terrible advance. The country was flooded the thermometer showed llo degrees in the shade. Finally, how ever the enemy was beaten. His losses were heavy again and great numbers or prisoners were taken A message of warm congratulation came from the King Emperor of the Anglo Indian force. the Turk was finished in lower Mesopotamia, the Sultan had lost one or his richest provinces.
 Water and sand, heat and the damn chill of wet nights and clothes-these are the things which the British and Indian troops have had to fight, along With the Turks and Arabs. Sandstorms have swept the battlefields The willy Arabs, on their fleet little steeds. know none of the discomforts of an atmosphere filled with flying particles From the desert sands. At one time a party of Arabs, screened by sand storm, made raid on an invading force. The Europeans and Indians were blinded, but the Arabs were bothered little and came to the attack concealed by the great clouds of dust which the wind swiried up from the desert.
 Never in this world war has such a picturesque thing happened as on one day in the fighting along the Shatt-el- Arab. nor has any force had the mirac- ulous escape from extermination, or at least further heavy losses, than the Turkish army that day. The fighting had been brisk and the Turks were being beaten. The British artillery was performing in grand manner, shrapnel was being laid straight into the Turk ish entrenchments Finally the Turks broke and ran. The British advanced. the ranges were heightened and the shells fell amongst the flying troops. Suddenly the British guns ceased fir ing. Distant observers could see the idle British batteries on the one side and off in another direction the flying Turks. It was inexplicable unless ttr ammunition had given out This was not the case, the caissons were full. What happened was that suddenly the Turkish forces disappeared from the sight of the British gunners. A mirage. showing a lake and palms, had come between the artillerymen and their hu- man targets. They could no longer see the flying enemy, consequently they ceased fire and many Turks escaped destruction.
 The Garden of Eden was, we are told. at the juncture of the Tigris and Eu- pirates rivers, where Kurna is now. Some scientists say it was elsewhere. but others think Kurna is the place; the natives are sure of it. They point to a certain tree at Kurna, to which boats are sometimes moored, which Is. they say. the tree of Knowledge of good and evil" The spot is not beau tiful, there is none of the luxurious ex- pansion of nature which one naturally expects of the Garden of Eden. There are cultivated date palms extended some miles back and then desert. just as is the case all along the rivers Sos1e distance above Kurna. between the two rivers. is UT of the Chaldeans, that most ancient of places Then there fs the tomb of Ezra. the prophet, above Kurna, which is the shrine for the He- brews who make pilgrimages there. Further up the river. which sweeps like a Nile or Mississippi, are the ruins of Ctesiphon. capital of the Parthian Kingdom. which fell to the Romans more than 2000 years ago. Across is Seleucia, or what remains of that city where once half million people lived Bagdad now has not the magnificence 1t once had, perhaps, but 1t Is still a fantastic tour of the east and still, amidst the brilliantly colored and pe- culiarly shaped buildings. there dwell people who even today fit well into the Arabian Nights. Further up the Tigris is Mosul and Ninevah. Forty miles away on the bank of the Euphrates, are the shapeless mounds that were Babylon in all it's glory. In that vicin- ity too. Is the great mound that is be- lieved to have been the Tower of Ba- bel.
 Sir William wilicock's great scheme