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'Report on the Administration of the Persian Gulf Political Residency and Muscat Political Agency for the year 1877-78.' [256r] (57/165)
The record is made up of 1 volume (81 folios). It was created in 1878. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .
Transcription
This transcription is created automatically. It may contain errors.
AND MUSCAT POLITICAL
AGENCY
An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent.
FOR THE YEAR 1877-78.
35
have seen some samples of small and yellow, but very brilliant, pearls
which were gathered at the island of K arrack close to Bushire.
The banks which are mostly fished are those that lie between the
24th and 27th degrees of North Latitude and the 50th and 55th degrees
of East Longitude in the shoal waters of the Arab Coast.
It is almost unnecessary to specify any particular localities, as
the whole of the shallows are more or less fertile, and the fishing ground
seem to be liable to continual change, but the banks of Dehee, Shiltaye,
Gumreh and Arfaj are famous.
27. With regard to this characteristic of a constant shifting of
the fish, instance may be made of the harvest of 1876, when nearly every
boat in the Gulf was riding in the vicinity of the Shah* Alum shoal,
which is situated almost in the middle of the Gulf, boasts a very small
circumference, and is surrounded by deeps of 30 and 40 fathom where no
diver could ply his trade.
Here the haul was very large, it was in fact a “bumper” year, but
when the boats came down on it next year in full anticipation of another
rich harvest, there was comparatively nothing forthcoming.
28. Broadly however it is safef to say that the boats collect prin
cipally between Sir-beui Yas island and Shiltaye, where lie the best
known and most fished banks, and where a smaller or greater yield is
a certainty.
This enormous extent of ocean is almost all of it shallow enough
to be at the mercy of the Arab diver.
The hanks vary in distance from the shore from one to ninety miles,
but the deep sea banks are not so much fished till the “ Skemal” or Nor-
westers of June have spent their force.
29. These gales, very sudden, severe, and of certain yearly recur
rence, are much dreaded by the Arab sailors, whose boats indeed seem
scarcely fitted to weather a hurricane peculiarly buoyant as they are,
the slightest gust at an unexpected moment will send the gunwale
down a Jhur del’eau. Eair weather is the more an essential to their
system of navigation, as they use no charts, compasses, &c.; they are
guided by bearings from the land, by the sun, and the colour of the
water by day, the stars and the moon by night, but their local know
ledge of the sea bed is said to be very thorough.
Fertility.
30. With regard to the fertility of the banks the weight of
evidence would seem to be in favour of the supposition that the yield
has decreased of late years.
# Longitude 52° 30'.
Latitude 26° 25'.
f Longitude 52 :> 37' to SO' 1 13'.
Latitude 25° TO' to 20° 37'.
About this item
- Content
Administration report of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. Residency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India. and Muscat Political Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. for 1877-78, published by Authority at the Foreign Department Press, Calcutta [Kolkata], 1878. The report is based on reports sent by the Officiating Political Resident A senior ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul General) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Residency. in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. (Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Charles Ross) and the Political Agent A mid-ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Agency. at Muscat (Lieutenant-Colonel Samuel Barrett Miles) to the Government of India. The report is preceded by a copy of a letter sent by Ross to Alfred Comyn Lyall, Secretary to the Government of India, Foreign Department, dated 8 July 1878, which enclosed the submission of the original reports.
The report is organised in a number of sections and subsections, as follows:
Part I: General Report, signed by Ross, and arranged under subheadings as follows: Oman; Arab Coast; Bahrein [Bahrain]; Nejd [Najd]; Province of Fars and the Persian Coast and Islands; Bushire; Coast from Bushire to Lingah [Bandar Lengeh]; Lingah; Bunder Abbass [Bandar Abbas]; Persian-Baloochistan [Baluchistan] Coast; Bassidore [Bāsaʻīdū]; Establishments; Slave-Trade; Appendices (including meteorological tables, notes on the Kara Aghach River by Dr Friedrich Carl Andreas*, the route from Bushire to Lar and Shiraz, and the route from Lar to Shiraz, the Persian Post Office and Foreign Postage, and tables of Persian money and measurements).
Part II: Report on trade of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. for the year 1877, signed by Ross and arranged under subheadings, as follows: Effects of late war on the trade; Steam communication; Grain harvest; Scarcity of coin; Opium; Pearl fisheries; Impediments to development of trade in Persia; and appendices (including notes on the pearling industry by Captain Edward Law Durand, notes on date palm cultivation by James Charles Edwards, and 31 tables of trade statistics covering imports/exports from/to the various ports and settlements of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , and between the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. and India).
Part III: Administration report of the Political Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. , Muscat, for the year 1877-78, prepared by Miles and arranged under the following subheadings: Political; Official changes; Slave Traffic.
Part IV: Trade statistics for Muscat, prepared by Miles, and comprising of six tables covering imports, exports, and number and tonnage of vessels entering and leaving the port.
* Folio 246 - a map has been temporarily removed and replaced with a green sheet of paper noting its removal.
- Extent and format
- 1 volume (81 folios)
- Arrangement
The report is arranged into four parts (I-IV).
- Physical characteristics
Pagination: The report has a pagination system which uses numbers printed in the top-left corner of versos and top-right corner of rectos.
- Written in
- English in Latin script View the complete information for this record
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- Reference
- IOR/V/23/32, No 152
- Title
- 'Report on the Administration of the Persian Gulf Political Residency and Muscat Political Agency for the year 1877-78.'
- Pages
- front, back, spine, edge, head, tail, 2r:2v, 232r:310r
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence