On the opposite side of the Tigris, the traveller comes upon a region far less favored by nature than that of which we have been lately speaking.  Western Assyria has but a scanty supply of water; and unless the labor of man is skilfully applied to compensate this natural deficiency, the greater part of the region tends to be, for ten months out of the twelve, a desert.  The general character of the country is level, but not alluvial.  A line of mountains, rocky and precipitous, but of no great elevation, stretches across the northern part of the region, running nearly due east and west, and extending from the Euphrates at Rum-kaleh to Til and Chelek upon the Tigris.  Below this, a vast slightly undulating plain extends from the northern mountains to the Babylonian alluvium, only interrupted about midway by a range of low limestone hills called the Sinjar, which leaving the Tigris near Mosul runs nearly from east to west across central Mesopotamia, and strikes the Euphrates half-way between Rakkeh and Kerkesiyeh, nearly in long. 40 deg..

The northern mountain region, called by Strabo “Mons Masius,” and by the Arabs the Karajah Dagh towards the west, and towards the east the Jebel Tur, is on the whole a tolerably fertile country.  It contains a good deal of rocky land; but has abundant springs, and in many parts is well wooded.  Towards the west it is rather hilly than mountainous; but towards the east it rises considerably, and the cone above Mardin is both lofty and striking.  The waters flowing from the range consist, on the north, of a small number of brooks, which after a short course fall into the Tigris; on the south, of more numerous and more copious streams, which gradually unite, and eventually form two rather important rivers.  These rivers are the Belik, known anciently as the Bileeha, and the Western Khabour, called Habor in Scripture, and by the classical writers Aborrhas or Chaboras. [Plate XXII., Fig. 1.]

[Illustration:  Plate 22]

The Belik rises among the hills east of Orfa, about long. 39 deg., lat. 37 deg. 10’.  Its course is at first somewhat east of south; but it soon sweeps round, and, passing by the city of Harran—­the Haran of Scripture and the classical Carrh—­proceeds nearly due south to its junction, a few miles below Rakkah, with the Euphrates.  It is a small stream throughout its whole course, which may be reckoned at 100 or 120 miles.

The Khabour is a much more considerable river.  It collects the waters which flow southward from at least two-thirds of the Mons Masius, and has, besides, an important source, which the Arabs regard as the true “head of the spring,” derived apparently from a spur of the Sinjar range.  This stream, which rises about lat. 36 deg. 40’, long. 40 deg., flows a little south of east to its junction near Koukab with the Jerujer or river Nisi-his, which comes down from Mons Masius with a course not much west of south.  Both of these branches are formed by the union of a number of streams.  Neither of them is fordable for some distance above their junction; and below it, they constitute a river of such magnitude as to be navigable for a considerable distance by steamers.  The course of the Khabour below Koukab is tortuous; but its general direction is S.S.W.  The entire length of the stream is certainly not less than 200 miles.