Bedouin Tribes of the Euphrates Vol 2 - The Search For Mecca

POSTSCKIPT.
Scheme of a Euphrates Valley Eailway.—Of river communication.—The
Turkish system of government.— Its pax-tial success.—Its
failings.—A guess at the future.
It lias l)een suggested to nie tliat I ought to say
ix few words as to the possible future of the countries
described iu this book, more especially in
relation to their supposed destiny of giving us an
•overland route to India ;—and first as to the scheme
of a railway between the Mediterranean and the
Persian Gulf.
In these days of engineering triumphs, all
things
are of course possible, and a railway could doubtless
be constructed over any part of the desert. To
lay eyes, however, certain difficulties present themselves,
if not in the construction, at least in the
working of such a road, while the prospect of its
ever proving a financial
success, looks like the most
chimerical of fancies. A railway follo^^'ing the line
of the Euphrates, must pass
either along the actual
Valley, or the table-land above it. In the first case
the flooding of the river and its frequent changes
of bed will have to be considered, while in the
second an immense amount of cutting and bridging
will be required, for the whole of the desert immediately
bordering the valley is a network of wadys