Work on the sections in northern Mesopotamia does not present great difficulties. There is reason to believe that construction here proceeded with feverish haste during the European war. The main obstacles to rapid track-laying are found in the mountainous district which intervenes between the Anatolian plateau and the plains of Syria and Mesopotamia. According to reports the tunnels in the Amanus mountains were driven from end to end by the summer of 1915. It will probably take longer to complete construction through the mountainous wall which connects the Chakra valley to the Tarsus river in the Cilician Taurus. This section of the road is only 22 miles long. It crosses however an extremely rugged district and requires four separate tunnels which together measure some 10½ miles. In May, 1914, three tunnels had been started and the ground cleared at the approach of the fourth. A number of branch lines are included in the concession of the Bagdad railroad. The products of some of Turkey’s most promising districts will pass over their tracks toward the trunk line, thence to be finally transported overland through the Balkan peninsula and Austria to German manufacturing centers. A side line projected to extend northeast of Aleppo will tap eventually an exceedingly rich mineral belt situated at the northern convergence of the Tigris and Euphrates. In this district the celebrated copper mines of Argana are found. They are worked in desultory fashion by the Turkish government. In spite of crude methods of extraction and long camel-back hauls the ore is of sufficiently high grade character to yield ample returns. Silver, lead, coal and iron also exist in the same zone of mineralization. An important branch connecting the trunk line with the Mediterranean at Alexandretta has been in operation since 1913. The line is only about fifty miles in length and traverses the heart of a rich orange-growing district. The northern track of this branch crosses the plain of Issus where Alexander battled against Darius. At about six miles from its southern terminal the line hugs Mediterranean waters and crosses the spot where, according to statements of the natives, the whale relieved itself of the indigestible burden of the prophet Jonah.