'The Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society. From December 1854 to March 1856. (New Issue.) Edited by the Secretary. Volume XII.' [‎114] (223/258)

114
LIEUTENANT CHARLES G. CONSTABLE’S MEMOIR
An account of the prevalent winds and the weather throughout the year in
the Gulf of Oman, lower portion, and upper part of the Gulf of Persia, and
on the Arabian side, is a desideratum.
The Arab boatmen and pilots in some localities are guided very materially
by the nature of the bottom, with the peculiarities of which we have not much
knowledge. The pilots for the Basra River, the mouth of which is fronted
by dangerous shoals extending for miles out of sight of land, are entirely
guided by the specimens brought up by the lead; these they examine minutely
at every cast.
There are more towns and villages along the shores of the Gulf than the
charts shew ; many have been built since the survey, and those which were
then visited have much increased in size and importance with the increase of
trade which followed on the suppression, by the British Government, of
piracy.
In conclusion, I have only to add, that in conceding to the wishes of the
Geographical Society to place this Memoir at their disposal, for insertion in
their printed Transactions, I trust my so doing will be viewed strictly in the
light of a desire to benefit the cause of science, and adding a mite to the
stock of geographical information already possessed by this Society. The
subject is not a new one; the errors and deficiencies in the chart of the Persian
Gu.f have been long known, and ably discussed, in England as w'ell as in India;
and had it not been that the more important surveys of the Coast of Western
Bidia have so long occupied the whole staff of the survey department, there
is little doubt the Gulf would have been re-surveyed before this. The present
chart is m one sense quite sufficient to navigate by, and is, perhaps, equal to
many of the surveys of that time; but as each defector omission has come to
light, the confidence of navigators in the chart has been shaken. This however
WHSmvthTf'-^^ ^ " th6 §reat ^grapher. Rear Admiral
W. H. Smyth, states in his work The Mediterranean-- hydrography is pecu
liarly a progressive science, and as such has always been so incomplete as to
demand a continual correction of its errors. Nothing, therefore, can be more
unjust 01 unsound than for geographers to condemn unsparingly the labours
the P rT Wlth ° Ut adverting t0 the c ^cumstances, pro et con, in
ind 17 iTh CaSe ” F ° r my Part ’ 1 HaVe ke ^ this uppermost in my
imnd and would be sorry indeed to have it supposed for a moment that mv
STT ^ le known dangers omitted ." the PerZ
Gulf chart, was with a view to call in question theabilitiesof my predecessors
or to throw a slur on the result of their labours Fnr 11 / , ’
the difficulties they had to contend with were no small ones. 6 ^ °* P ^ '