'A Journey through Persia, Armenia, and Asia Minor, to Constantinople, in the years 1808 and 1809, in which is included some account of the proceedings of his Majesty's Mission, under Sir Harford Jones, Bart., to the Court of the King of Persia. With twenty-five engravings from the designs of the author; a plate of inscriptions; and three maps.' [‎53] (88/524)

RESIDENCE OF THE MISSION AT BUSHIRE.
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oysters : but the island of Kharrack now shares the reputation. The
fishery extends along the whole of the Arabian coast, and to a large
proportion of the Persian side of the gulph. Verdistan, Nabon, and
Busheub, on that side, are more particularly mentioned; but indeed it
is a general rule, that wherever in the gulph there is a shoal, there is also
the pearl oyster.
The fishery, though still in itself as prolific as ever, is not perhaps
carried on with all the activity of former yea¥s; since it declined in
consequence by the transfer of the English market to the banks of the
coast of Ceylon. But the Persian peart is never without a demand;
though little of the produce of the fishery comes direct into Persia.
The trade has now almost entirely centred at Muscat, From Muscat
the greater part of the pearls are exported to Surat; and, as the agents
of the Indian merchants are constantly on the spot, and as the fishers
prefer the certain sale of their merchandize there to a higher but less
regular price in any other market, the pearls may often be bought at a
less price in India, than to an individual they would have been sold in
Arabia. There are two kinds ; the yellow pearl, which is sent to the
Mahratta market; and the white pearl, which is circulated through
Bussorah and Bagdad into Asia Minor, and thence into the heart of
Europe; though, indeed, a large proportion of the whole is arrested in
its progress at Constantinople to deck the Sultanas of the Seraglio. The
pearl of Ceylon peels off; that of the Gulph is as firm as the rock upon
which it grows; and, though it loses in colour and water 1 per cent an
nually for fifty years, yet it still loses less than that of Ceylon. It ceases
after fifty years to lose any thing.
About twenty years ago the fishery was farmed out by the different
chiefs along the coast: thus the Sheiks of Bahrein and of El
Katif, having assumed a certain portion of the Pearl Bank, obliged
every speculator to pay them a certain sum for the right of fishing. At
present, however, the trade which still employs a considerable number of
boats is carried on entirely by individuals. There are two modes of spe
culation: the first, by which the adventurer charters a boat by the month