Page 577 - Arabian Gulf Intellegence

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NAVIGATION OF TIIE GULF OF PERSIA. 533

population, I have had to reconcile; also the disinclination in the more
respectable classes of natives to give information on these subjects.
I have endeavoured to render everything as plain as possible : in all
places the native name is retained ; and on the Persian side, of such
objects as arc known to, and have been named by European navigators,
the native name is given in addition to the one by which it is generally
known to the European.
It is also necessary to notice that the Bushire Residency is through­
out considered as our first meridian, calling it in lat. 29° 00' 15" N., and
long. 50° 51' 30" E. Except the survey of the first season, and part of
the second, the variation of the compass has always been obtained on
shore, and it may as well be here mentioned, that from observations
obtained at different periods during the sixteen years I have been in
the marine, and corroborated by those made by Lieutenant McClure and
others, the variation in the Gulf is decreasing at the rate of about four
miles and a half yearly.
All the latitudes and longitudes have been observed on shore with an
artificial horizon, as the refraction in the Gulf has been found so great
that observations made with the natural horizon seldom agree two days
together.
The soundings have mostly, when near the shore, been carefully
taken by the boats, always anchoring when any particular change
occurred, and being fixed by angle taken between two well defined
objects. All shoals have been fixed by a trigonometrical chain being
carried round them. In all cases where the survey has been trigono­
metrical, which has been the case altogether, except from Bushire
southward and westward, and here it has been partly so, care has been
taken, by occasionally measuring bases of corroboration, and obtaining
celestial observations, to verify the work.
I beg to state that the utmost care has been taken throughout the
survey to prevent errors, but that some may occur I think more than
probable, but trust they will be so trifling as to be of no importance
to the navigation of the Gulf.
In regard to the statement that closes this Memoir, relative to the rise
of piracy, its causes, and suppression, it is from the best information
I could get, and might be considered a subject for another pen than that
of a sailor in regard to that part relative to keeping it down. It is
impartially drawn up, from an intimate knowledge of the people, and
what from long experience I know to be both the least expensive and
most efficient means. To Lieutenant Houghton, of the Honorable
Company’s Marine, and Lieutenant Haines, of the same service, I feel
indebted for much useful information.
GEORGE B. BRUCKS.