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Travels in Mesopotamıa
Chapter I
From the plain of Sinjar, by Romoila, to Mousul
July 3d. We quitted our station on the plain, just as the moon was setting, and although we had now an additional escort of eighty well-armed and well-mounted men, our whole party did not exceed in number two hundred persons.
Soon after commencing our night-march, going in a direction of east-south-east, we passed over a deep ravine, filled with large basaltic masses, forming a vein in the earth, like the deep and winding bed of a torrent. The rest of our way was over desert ground, though the whole tract was capable of being rendered highly fertile, being covered with a good soil, and intersected by several small rivulets of water.
It was soon after the rising of the Pleiades, or just before the first gleam of dawn appearred, that we formed our halt, at a spot called Romoila, for the sake of filling our vessels with water, as our next stage was to be a night one, through which we might not find any supply of this indispensable provision. This march was intended to be prolonged without a halt, until we should arrive on the banks of the Tigris, in order that we might thus pass over this dangerous plain of Sinjar by night, and escape the prying sight of the Yezeedis under the cover of darkness...
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