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From Basra through the Persian Gulf. 1. Find on the map in Figure 37 the part of the river on which your boat would sail in going from Basra to the Persian Gulf. Move your pencil point along this part of the river. 2. Find this part of the river in Figure 35, and in Figure 34. 3. As you go from Basra to the Persian Gulf, do you go upstream or downstream? Will a piece of floating wood in the river drift in the direction in which your boat is going, or in the opposite direction? 4. Along the banks of the Shat-el-Arab, you would see many gardens like those you saw upstream from Basra. What trees, then, would you see? 5. Many of these gardens are like those in Figure 42. Did question 4 make you think of trees like these? 6. How do you thrnk you could tell when you came to the Persian, Gulf? The map in Figure 37 and the picture in Figure 36 help you to answer this. 7. Find again the narrow, place between the Persian Gulf and the great sea southeast of it. This narrow place is called the" Gateway of the Persian Gulf." Do you see why? 8. The following five stories were told by a traveler in this region. From them you can find out at least five things about the Persian Gulf and the mouth of the river. When you have read these stories, tell what you would see on your journey from Basra through the Persian Gulf. Buoys. " As the vessel neared the mouth of the river, it moved less rapidly and was guided more carefully. Buoys mark the course that boats should follow. The river here is shallow, and there is danger that boats will be grounded in the mud of the river bed. The buoys mark the deeper places. Some time after we passed the last buoy, we looked back. There were no shores in sight. We could see nothing in any direction but sky and water. We were in the Persian Gulf." A change of color. " The sun shone brightly, and soon we noticed that the water of the Gulf was almost as blue as the sky above. We missed the sights along the shores, but it was more pleasant to look at the blue sea than it had been to watch the muddy, light brown waters of the Tigris and the Shat-el-Arab. In some places in the Gulf, the water was so clear that we could see brightly colored fish swimming in it." The filling of the sea. The captain told us this true story of the Persian Gulf. " More than a hundred miles west of Basra stand the ruins of an ancient town. Some men who explored these ruins found in them some tablets of clay. The ancient writing on one of these tablets shows that several thousand years ago this town was on the shores of the Persian Gulf. Now the shores of the Gulf are many miles from the town. For thousands of years the Tigris and the Euphrates have carried mud, sand, and gravel toward the Gulf. When the water of the rivers reaches the sea, it can no longer carry so much material. The gravel, sand, and mud settle to the bottom of the sea near the shore. In this way the sea is being filled up little by little. Where once upon a time there was sea, there now is land. So it happens that this town, which once was on the sea coast, is now many miles from the shore. The part of the sea that was near the town has been filled in. This story explains why the water of the rivers is muddy, while the water in the Gulf, away from shore, is clear. It also shows why there is a shallow place at the mouth of the river. The material that has settled there has formed a sort of ridge across the river bed. This ridge is called The Bar of the Shat-el-Arab." The pearl fishers of the Persian Gulf. "It was late in June. We had gone about three hundred miles from the bar of the Shat-el-Arab when we came within view of the sail boats of the pearl fishers. In this part of the Persian Gulf there are oysters, in some of whose shells beautiful pearls are found. These oysters live on the bed of the sea, and men dive to get them. Many of the men who live in the villages near the west coast of the Persian Gulf make their living fishing for pearl oysters. The fishing boats leave the home villages late in the spring, and many do not return to them till autumn. The men work in pairs. One man is the diver and the other man attends to the rope. which raises and lowers the diver. At the end of the rope is a heavy stone. The diver puts a little basket on his arm, plugs his ears and nose, and takes hold of the rope. At a signal his companion lets out the rope and the heavy stone makes the diver sink quickly. He can stay under the water only a very short time. During this time he puts as many oysters in his basket as he can get, and then gives the rope a jerk that is the sign for his companion to pull him to the surface. After the days diving is done, the oyster shells are opened and any pearls found in them are taken out." A strait. " From these pearl fisheries, a journey of three hundred miles brought us to the entrance of the Gulf. The day was clear and we could see land both to the left of us and to the right, though the shores were several miles away. It is about thirty miles from the shore we saw on the south to the one on the north." This narrow gateway between the Persian Gulf and the sea to the southeast is called a strait. "Strait" means narrow. Some things to do and others to think about. 1. Look now at the five titles of the stories you have just read. The first one is "Buoys." What are the other four? These titles show you the five things you should have found about the Persian Gulf and the mouth of the river. 2. Put some muddy water in a glass and let the glass standfor several hours. During this time, do not stir the water in the glass at all. What happens? Then stir the water in the glass a little bit. What happens? Stir it hard. What happens? Let it stand again for several hours. What happens? Does this help you see how mud which a river carries sometimes settles to the bottom of the river or to the bottom of the sea near the mouth of the river? What trouble may be caused to ships by mud which has settled at the mouth of a river? 3. Is there a creek or river near you? If so, watch this stream whenever you can, to find answers to the following questions. Does it have much mud in it, as the Tigris does, or little mud? Does it seem to have more mud in it at some times than at others? If so, is it muddier when it is flowing slowly, or when it is flowing rapidly? 4. The next time it rains, watch carefully to see if the water, as it runs off, carries mud from one place to another. If so, do you understand why it dropped it where it did? 5. Try to show in a sand pan how the bar of the Shat-el-Arab is a nuisance to ships. 6. Try to show in a sand pan how part of the Persian Gulf has been filled in so that the coast is not where it was once upon a time. 7. Land which has been built near the mouth of a river by material which the river. carried and dropped into the sea is called a delta. See which of you will be the first to find another delta as you proceed with your journeys. 8. Tn Figure 43, more signs have been added to those you saw in Figure 40. The following paragraphs and the map in Figure 43 will help you picture the remainder of your journey from the Tigris to the Nile. Arabia. Perhaps you have guessed before now, because of the Arabs you saw near the Tigris, that the land just west of the Persian Gulf is Arabia. Sailing west along the southern end of this land for more than twelve hundred miles, you come to the sea, west of Arabia. Follow this journey on your map, and find this sea. It is called the Red Sea. From Figures 44, 45, 46, and 47, find at least five things that you might see on or near the coasts of Arabia as you sail from the Persian Gulf to the Red Sea. How many things can you find in these pictures which show you that Arabia is a land of little rain? It is much easier to sail around the southern end of this great desert land than it is to cross it. Your map shows you whether or not you can sail all the way round the land of Arabia. If you could sail all the way round it, Arabia would be a large island. Since you can sail most of the way but not all the way round it, it is a peninsula instead. "Pen" means "almost" and "insula" means "island." Do you see that Arabia is almost an island? Sailing through the desert. A strip of desert lies between the northern end of the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, farther north. It joins Arabia to the land of the Nile, which you are to visit next. To get from the Red Sea to the mouth of the Nile, the ship must go through this strip of desert. Find this strip of land on your map. Do you not wonder how a ship can cross it? Men have dug a very large ditch, or canal, across it, called the Suez Canal. Find the sign for this canal in Figure 43. From the picture in Figure 48, find some of the things you would see along the canal. After you pass through the Suez, a short journey westward brings you to the mouth of the Nile. The game of "Captain." Suppose you are in a ship on a great sea like the one southeast of Arabia and the Persian Gulf. Suppose this ship starts at a place shown by A in Figure 49 and follows a path shown by the line beginning at A and ending at B. Of course this seems a queer path for a ship to follow, but this game will help you remember dlirections on your map. On the blackboard draw a line like the one in Figure 49. At another place on the blackboard write the word "Captains." Choose one person to try to be captain of this ship. The person chosen goes to the board, and, as he follows the path beginning at A with a pointer, he pretends he is guiding the ship and tells in what direction he is moving it. If he says, "I take my ship east, then south, then east, then north, then east, then south, then west," he has followed the route correctly. As a reward, his name is put on the board under the title "Captains." He then erases the route on the board, draws another one, and names another person to try to become a captain by following correctly the route he drew. The next route might look like the one in Figure 50. If you do not make too many turns in the routes, many people can have a chance to try to be captains in a short time. If a person chosen to try makes a mistake, he must choose some one to try in his place, and his name is not put in the list of captains. He cannot have another chance to try till every one else in the class has tried. After you are all good captains on routes like these, you may try yourselves on harder routes like the one in Figure 51. This is a good game to play at recess as well as in class. Old games. You must not forget to play from time to time old games with new things. Have you used "delta" as a password? Peninsula? Island? Arabia? Red Sea? Persian Gulf? Now that your world map is started, the game of Guide may be changed a little and may be called "Host." Other children and guests who come to your room might like to know what the maps in Figures 40 and 43 tell. You can choose some person to be "host " or "hostess" to the first guest who comes. The "host" or "hostess" will explain to the guest just what all the signs in these maps suggest. That host may then choose another person to be host to the next guest, and so on till each of you has had a turn to be host.
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