THE IMPERIAL ROAD.

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and sterile plain the camels suffered considerably from want of water, and even the caravan was sore bestead. There was great rejoicing, therefore, when, on the eighth day, they arrived at an ancient well not far from the site of the once splendid Palmyra. It was cased with stone, and of considerable depth. The operation of drawing water was very tedious; for the caravan had but a single leathern bucket, which was lowered and drawn up with tiresome iteration until all the water-skins were filled. This operation completed, the camels had to be furnished with a copious draught, as also with a sufficient reserve to enable them to continue their journey. The second or reserve stomach with which, as our readers know, the "ship of the desert" is equipped, contains, when filled, water enough to last for six or even nine days.

As they followed up the Derb Sultán, or Imperial Road, which in olden days led from Palmyra to Zenobia's summer palace on the banks of the Euphrates, they found that the scenery improved, and the country became less desert; green hills loomed against the horizon, and healthy shrubs and vigorous growths of grass spread all around. On the fourteenth day they crossed the rocky bed of a

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IRRIGATING MACHINERY.

partially dried-up river; and on the fifteenth came in sight of the tower of El-Kaim, and, soon afterwards, of the waters of the great Euphrates, sparkling in the sunshine, at El-Werdi. That evening the caravan encamped at the foot of some low hills overhanging its right bank. Here, while at supper, Chesney's attention was attracted by a curious dull creaking sound, accompanied by that of falling water, mingled occasionally with the roar of lions from a different quarter. He sallied forth to ascertain what it all meant, and after walking about a mile, came upon some machinery by which the river water is raised for purposes of irrigation. This is effected by means of a light, graceful aqueduct, having at its extremity a water-wheel of fifty feet in diameter, to which the current communicates a rotatory motion and the requisite power, through a simple contrivance which, at the same time, fills the aqueduct. Water-wheels of this description are very common along the banks of the Upper Euphrates. A number of clay cylinders, each about eleven and a half inches long by three and a half inches in diameter, are placed round the periphery of the wheel, and set in motion by the current. These successively discharge their contents into a conduit, which con

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veys the water into the interior with a creaking noise audible at a considerable distance.

Captain Chesney now left the caravan, in order to push forward to Anna, where he hoped to make arrangements for descending the Euphrates. From El-Kaim he followed the course of the river downward, in an easterly direction. Just above Rava it pours its broken waters over the rocky ledge of Karablah, which constitutes the great obstacle to navigation between Bir and Bosrah. Below Rava the river winds through a long chain of picturesquely wooded islands until it reaches Anna, a town of some importance. In the vicinity is the island of Tilbus, crowned with ruins of the fortifications of Thelutha or Thilutha, which at one time contained the treasury of the Parthians, and at a later period was unsuccessfully besieged by the Emperor Julian. On another island moulder the remains of the palace of the Persian emperor Ardeshir; on a third, those of an extensive castle; on a fourth, those of a bridge which in former days threw its span across the whole breadth of the river; and on a fifth, rises a lofty and graceful Persian "minaret.” On the opposite bank are visible the memorials of the ancient Anatho. Thus the entire neighbourhood of Anna