Abstract
THE Tigris and Euphrates join north-west of Basrah and thence flow to the Persian Gulf as the broad, silt-filled stream known as the Shattel-Arab. For some hundred miles the combined rivers wind their way between low banks of alluvium, on which, except for the small areas cultivated around the Arab villages, nothing of value grows save the date palm. The scene and the surrounding country have probably been much the same for the past two thousand years, although evidences of Roman irrigation works indicate that, at one time, vast areas of the country must have been under effective cultivation and,iave remained so until the system, lapsing into disrepair, enabled the highly charged waters of the two rivers again to impreg nate the soil with mineral salts so as to render it productive of little but the camel thorn.
In a Persian Oil Field: a Study in Scientific and Industrial Development.
By J. W. Williamson. Pp. 189 + 24 plates. (London: Ernest Benn, Ltd., 1927.) 7s. 6d. net.
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THORPE, J. In a Persian Oil Field: a Study in Scientific and Industrial Development . Nature 120, 798–799 (1927). https://doi.org/10.1038/120798a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/120798a0
