Page 658 - Arabian Gulf Intellegence

614 NAVIGATION 01' THE

light the weather is generally hazy. From the middle of March to
September, the winds are mostly from the north-west, sometimes blow.
Ing very hard. Southerly winds seldom blow after March. You have
also occasionally land and sea-breezes. From the. middle of May to
the end of June the wind called the grand Shamall blows: this is a eon-
tinued north-west wind, and at limes blowing with great fury, in hard
gusts,—at other times light. It must have much altered since McClure’s
time, who speaks of ships being unable to show sail above their
courses lo it at all parts above Bushire.
The tides are quite regular at Bushire—it is high-water at full and
change at 7h. 50m.; at Karrack 9h. 20m., at Dillum lOh. 20m., halfway
between that and the bar off Khore Moosa at lib. 10m., and at Bussora
Bar at 12h. 10m. The same remarks apply from the island of Kenn or
Giles up to Bushire, so far as regards the winds, with the exception
that they are much lighter, except in the winter months, when they
blow hard, and often in heavy squalls. Except inshore, the tides here
are more irregular, being much influenced by the winds from Kenn
down to the Quoins. The winds hang in those months most to the
eastward and westward, when blowing strong from the north-west and
south-east above, taking the direction of the coast, and near the
entrance are frequently at north-east and south-west. Strong easterly
breezes occasionally blow in the hot season, and the land winds,
particularly on the Arabian Coast, are hot and blasting.
At the head of the Gulf the thermometer ranges from 4S° to about 76°
in the cold months, and from 85° to 1J0° in the hot; at the lower part
the range in the hot weather is much the same, and from 54° to 78° in
the cold.
At the entrance of the Gulf, and outside of it from Muskat to the
Quoins, the tides and currents are variable and uncertain (except on
the Persian Coast, where there is a regular tide), and depend much upon
the winds. When calm, or light winds blow near the entrance of the
Gulf, the influence of the tide is felt across the whole from coast to coast.

PRODUCE.
Until the unsettled state of Turkish Arabia and Persia, and the
carried on in the Gulf, in
recent ravages of the plague, a brisk trade was
silk, dried fruits, gums, dates, and horses, from Bushire in Persia ; the
same, with copper and many other similar articles, from Bussora. to a very
large amount; to these may be added pearls and specie, to the amount
of sixty or eighty lakhs of rupees annually. For this the °'V"°1S to° ^
British manufactures; China produce; rice and timber from i a a ar,