gathered from the valonîa oaks in Coordistan, and wool which is brought in by the pastoral Arabs and Coords, and exported hence to Europe by way of Baghdad and Aleppo. The staple agricultural produce is wheat and barley, which is so abundant that it hardly repays the cost of cultivation. The former is now [1850] selling for eight and the latter for five pence the hundred weight. The distance of Mosul from Europe must ever prevent the establishment of a lucrative trade in grain, and the want of an export adequate to the large imports from abroad is gradually destroying the resources of this province. Silk might be produced in large quantities in the mountains, where the mulberry grows almost wild; but such is the short-sightedness and supineness of the government, that beneficial measures of this kind are made to give way to trumpery reforms in dress, mere outward changes in the mode of administration, or to vain and ambitious designs of conquest.[1] The cultivation of the mulberry was introduced into Diarbekir about eight years ago, and the result has surpassed the most sanguine expectations.
The transport trade from Mosul to Baghdad is carried on by rafts, the same species of conveyance that was used in the days of Herodotus, and long before his time, as may be ascertained from many illustrations on the slabs which have lately been dug up at Nineveh. These are constructed of a stout frame-work of rough timber, to which a deck of canes is secured with ligatures of bark. Beneath this the sheep-skins are fastened with the opening peering above the reeds, so as to facilitate their being inflated anew in case the air should escape during the voyage. The rafts for carrying merchandize vary from sixteen to twenty feet square, and are floated by as many as five hundred skins.
- ↑ A Turkish admiral accompanied by several naval officers and engineers passed through Mosul in March, 1850, on their way to Basra, where they have orders to erect a dock, and to build ships of war for the Porte. Thousands of pounds will doubtless be spent upon this undertaking, which, if laid out upon an object such as that above alluded to, might in a few years yield a large increase to the public revenue, and be the means of enriching the country generally. The commerce of the Turks in the Arabian Sea and in the Persian Gulf is fully protected by the cruizers of the East India Company, so that unless they intend to impose their rule upon the Arabs of Bahrein, Oman, Muscat, and Yemen, which are governed badly enough now, but would hardly be bettered by the paternal sway of the Osmanlis, it is difficult to conceive the object of this new scheme.
