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Publications, Newspaper Cuttings, Photographs and Correspondence about Persia and the Persian Gulf [50r] (101/879)
The record is made up of 1 file (436 folios). It was created in 14 Oct 1891-Sep 1911. It was written in English, French and German. 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.
LAKE URMI AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD.
7
saline waters.* I always found bathing pleasant on account of the
great buoyancy of the water, and did not find that the buoyancy was
at all incompatible with swimming, as has often been stated. Bathing
is invigorating if care be taken to avoid exposure to the strong rays of
the sun. A man with a sun-tanned back can bathe with impunity, when
another whose spinal cord is unprotected by pigment would run great
risk of sunstroke. On emerging, if the water be not quickly removed
by a towel, the skin becomes covered with a thin white film of salt.
Margin of Lake.—The fertile plain of Urmi descends so gradually
to the margin of the lake, and then sinks below its surface with so
imperceptible an incline, that a rise or fall of but a few inches in the
level of the lake is sufficient to flood or leave dry many acres of land.
The inhabitants of the villages near the lake, both in the plain of
Salmas and in that of Urmi, are complaining of a rise within the last
couple of years. The water has risen in the tanuras, or underground
ovens for baking bread, in some of the houses, and has submerged many
acres of arable land. A rather unpleasant experience helped both Mr.
Irving and myself to realize the present state of the margin of the
lake. Contrary winds compelled us to land from our ship of about
4-foot draught near Ardishai. We had to wade through gradually
shoaling water for about a mile. Although the land must have been
submerged for some time, yet the ditches of former fields, and even their
ridges and furrows, were painfully well preserved. As the water
became shallower it also became hotter, and every footstep disengaged
volumes of sulphuretted hydrogen from the stinking black mud.
Nearer terra firma still, the shallow layer of water gave way to a
brilliant white crust of crystalline salt covering the same sickening
black mud, heated almost to scalding point by the sun. Although
I spent many nights on or near the shores of the lake, I was never
fortunate enough to witness the curious, and I should say extremely
rare, phenomenon recorded by Dr. Wills at the north end of the lake
near Turseh. On the evening of April 4, 18—, “many bituminous fires
lighted it up at night, huge sheets of flame suddenly appearing.” None
of my questions on the spot elicited any information on the subject.
There is no doubt that the chemical changes which take place in the
objectionable black mud are responsible for the formation of large quan
tities of sulphuretted hydrogen and probably also of marsh-gas, but
whether they have any part in what seems to be a will-o’-the-wisp
phenomenon on a gigantic scale is not proven. I never heard of any
petroleum springs near Lake Urmi.
* Cp. Strabo, bk. xi., ‘ Media : ’ " Lacum habet, qui Spauta dicitur in quo sales
efflorescentes coguntur; ii pruritum doloresque excitant; oleum malo ei medetur, et
aqua dulcis sanat sic inflammatas vestes, si quis ignarus lavandi causa eo immerserit ”
(Th. Falconer’s translation, 1807).
About this item
- Content
The file contains miscellaneous papers, mostly printed publications, newspaper cuttings and photographs, relating to Persia and the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. .
It includes a few items of correspondence, including letters to George Nathaniel Curzon relating to the Trans-Persian Railway, and Russian influence in Persia, and handwritten notes by Curzon on topics including arms traffic in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , and the Trans-Persian Railway.
The file also includes copies of printed publications relating to Persia, including: three pamphlets on Lake Urmi [Urmia] in North West Persia, by Robert Theodore Günther (two of which include duplicate copies of a map of the Lake Urmi Basin, Mss Eur F111/356, f 132); a paper entitled ‘Paper to be read before the Indian Section of the Society of Arts, Thursday, May 8th. 1902. The Past and Present Connection of England with the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. . By Thomas Jewell Bennett.’; and an article from the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal (Volume 5, Number 8, August 1909) entitled ‘Some Persian Folk-lore Stories concerning the Ruins of Persepolis.’ by Captain Charles Monk Gibbon, Royal Irish Fusiliers.
It includes in addition: two issues of a French pamphlet entitled Bulletin de l’Union des Associations des Anciens Élèves des Écoles Supérieures de Commerce (Reconnues par l’État) [ Bulletin of the Union of Associations of Former Students of the Higher Schools of Commerce (Recognized by the State) ], dated 20 January and 5 February 1904, which include articles by M E Peschier on the Baghdad Railway; and a German bookseller’s catalogue entitled Indica et Iranica Teilweise aus der Bibliothek von Viggo Fausböll Professor der indischen Sprachen an der Universität Kopenhagen I. Literaturen und Sprachen Indiens und Persiens [ Indica et Iranica Partially from the Library of Viggo Fausboll Professor of Indian Languages at the University of Copenhagen. Literatures and Languages of India and Persia ].
Folios to 250 to 370 of the file mostly consist of cuttings relating to Persia and the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. from various newspapers and other publications, including: The Times , The Morning Post , The Spectator , The Civil & Military Gazette , The Times of India , and The Standard . The cuttings concern topics including: British interests in Persia; the Russian influence in Persia, including the Persian Government signing a concession to a Russian company for the construction of a cart-road between Kazvin, Resht and Enzeli, and Anglo-Russian rivalry in trade with Persia; the cholera epidemic in Persia; and the events of the Persian Constitutional Revolution of 1905-11.
Folios 386 to 433 of the file consist of black and white photographs, including:
- Three photographs in an envelope entitled ‘Photos of Koweit [Kuwait]’, of Mabarak-bin-Subah [Shaikh Mubārak bin Ṣabāḥ Āl Ṣabāḥ], Shaikh of Kuwait, and his youngest son Naser (f 387), the foreshore of Koweit (f 388), and the residence of the Shaikh of Koweit (f 389)
- Two photographs in an envelope labelled ‘Photos by Parkin (assistant at Brit[ish] Resid[ency] Bushire / of Koweit Muscat. Bushire. Sent to me by Col[onel] Meade. April 1899.’ of Seyed Faisal bin Turki [Sayyid Fayṣal bin Turkī Āl Bū Sa‘īd], Sultan of Muscat (f 392), and Seyed Mohamed bin Turki, half-brother of the Sultan of Muscat (f 391)
- A set of photographs of the following: the South entrance of the Governor’s house, Bushire (f 395); the Political Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. and British Consulate, Muskat [Muscat] (f 396); the watch tower on Samana (f 397); Major and Mrs Leigh in Camp in Samana (f 398); Major and Mrs Leigh and Lieutenant Creagh [possibly George Washington Brazier-Creagh] at Mastar [Māster, Persia] (f 399); entrance of Muskat Harbour (f 400); town of Muskat from the harbour (f 401); Fort Jelali, Muskat (f 402); Fort Mahrani [Fort Al-Mirani], Muscat (f 403); and the British Vice Consulate at Mohamerah [Khorramshahr] (f 404)
- Printed images of the following: the British Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. , Manamah, Bahrain (f 407); Shaikh Khaz’ al of Muhammareh [Shaikh Khaz‘al bin Jābir bin Mirdāw al-Ka‘bī] (f 408); the view at Haz’-adh-Dhabi, Trucial Oman A name used by Britain from the nineteenth century to 1971 to refer to the present-day United Arab Emirates. (f 409); salt rocks on Qishm Island near Namakdan (f 410); the Hindiyan River near Zaidan (f 411); a parade of British and Persian troops at Rishehr, 1905 (f 412); two views of Muhammerah Town (f 413); a creek near Basrah [Basra] from the Shatt-al-’Arab (f 414); a crowd at Ras-al-Khaimah (f 415); the Foreshore, Kuwait (f 416); the Hanaini well, Bahrain Island (f 417); ancient tumuli, Bahrain Island (f 418); Kumzar (f 419); Lingeh (f 420); the Tis Valley in Persian Makran (f 421); the West end of Masqat Town [Muscat Town] with the Sultan’s Palace and Fort Mirani (f 422); and the Eastern end of Masqat Town, with the British Consulate on the left, and the Sultan’s palace on the right (f 423).
- Extent and format
- 1 file (436 folios)
- Arrangement
The folios from folio 4 to folio 251 are arranged in rough chronological order. The newspaper cuttings are mostly between folios 249 and 359, and the photographs are at the rear of the file (folios 386 to 433).
- Physical characteristics
Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 436; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio.
- Written in
- English, French and German in Latin script View the complete information for this record
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Copyright: How to use this content
- Reference
- Mss Eur F111/356
- Title
- Publications, Newspaper Cuttings, Photographs and Correspondence about Persia and the Persian Gulf
- Pages
- 46r:81r, 82r:133v
- Author
- Gunther, Robert William Theodore
- Copyright
- ©Royal Geographical Society
- Usage terms
- Creative Commons Non-Commercial Licence