Report No. 73 of 1864 by Lewis Pelly on his journey from Bandar Abbas to Cape Jask reconnoitering the route of the proposed telegraph line [‎4v] (8/20)

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To Lieutenant Colonel LEWIS PELLY,
Resident and Consul General, Bushire.
Bus hire, 1865.
Sir ,—In submitting, in obedience to your orders, a concise report of our late
tour, I trust, should it be considered very meagre, some allowance will be made
for the nature of the country travelled over, the season of the year, and the rapidity
of marching, which prevented me from entering into any detail on the subjects
mentioned in your letter.
The rocks forming the creeks and inlets of Muscat are apparently of volcanic
origin and of a black or blackish green, about 300 feet high, without any stratifica
tion, and interspersed with numerous veins of quartz. This formation extends
iilaud about three miles, and at Al-Vothayeh it is overlaid by another of a greenish
colour, and as far as could be seen without any distinct stratification, (Muscat No. 1,
Al-Vothayeh No. 2,) and this again is soon overlaid by strata of coarse grained red
sandstone, which may be traced for a considerable distance up the coast. (Al-
Vothayeh No. 3.)
But at Mussendom the rocks are limestone in strata, from two to eight feet
thick, contorted in almost every imaginable shape, and varying considerably in
colour. (Mussendom Nos. 4, 5, and 6.)
North-west from Mussendom, on the Persian side of the gulf, is the island of
Angaum. It is five miles long by two and a half broad, and is closely analogous
with the neighbouring portion of the island of Kishm, with this exception, that over
the corresponding strata (Angaum Nos. 7, 8, and 9 are corresponding strata from
below upwards) there is a layer about six feet thick of coral, fragments of coral
and shells loosely agglutinated by sand, and over that a thin skin of sandstone of
the same kind and placed much in the same manner as on parts of the Peninsula
of Bushire, where a thin layer overlies a soil which, when uncovered, is at once fit
for culiivation (Angaum Nos. 10 and 11).
From Bunder Abbass to Cape Jashk our road lay along a low plain, averaging
ten miles in breadth, and bounded on the one hand by mountain ranges, and on
the other by the sea shore. This plain is clearly divisible into three parts : an
inner third, the soil of which is of the same nature as, and appears to have been
formed from the disintegration of, sandstone rocks and from silt deposited from
innumerable mountain streams ; an outer third, barren and in many places marshy
and encrusted by salt, appears to have been formed by the sea; while the interme
diate portion is in a transition state, too barren and salt to rear cereals or even
support the date, but containing sufficient nourishment for the tamarisk, dwarf
tamarind, and camel thorn. At Gerony and Seereek, where the sand is blown into