280 RAWLINSON ON SOUTHERN PERSIA. [Feb. 9, 1857. 



traversed and examined them. No doubt there were many and 

 serious difficulties to be met with in the shape of deficiency in 

 quantity, and indifference in quality, of the water in many places, 

 the difficulty in crossing the ravines, and such-like obstacles ; but 

 he thought that in neither of the two great Passes were there insur- 

 mountable obstacles to conveying an army through them. There Were 

 a number of tribes in the various districts along these Passes ; but 

 he believed upon the whole they were rather friendly inclined than 

 otherwise. The great force of the province of Fars consisted of the 

 ancient Persian tribes, the assembling of whom by the Government 

 would be attended with considerable danger, as it would be uncer- 

 tain which side they would take. 



The President, in returning thanks to General Monteith for his communi- 

 cation, reminded the Society that General Monteith was one of their earliest 

 Associates. He might tell them that in the year 1831, almost immediately 

 after the establishment of the Society, General Monteith produced before 

 them a map, which had been subsequently published, relating to the north- 

 western districts of Persia, and particularly to the Caucasus and Armenia. 

 As this distinguished officer accompanied Sir John Malcolm in 1810, and was 

 nearly twenty years in the country, and as he had been an eye-witness of all 

 that he related, he (the President) need not say that his account was to 

 be relied on. His recent work on Erivan and Kars was well known. He 

 had been with both the Persian and Russian armies in the campaign of 1824 ; 

 and also with Prince Paskievitch in the Erivan campaign. He, the Presi- 

 dent, was happy to observe among the Fellows present so able a commentator 

 on Persia, as Sir Henry Rawlinson, — one who was so capable of giving a lucid 

 explanation of the geographical features of Southern Persia, and who he hoped 

 would be induced to extend his observations also to other parts of those re- 

 gions, and to diversify the subject by allusions to the great historical events 

 of antiquity. 



2. Observations on the Geography of Southern Persia^ with reference to the 

 pending Military Operations. By Col. Sir Henry C. Rawlinson, 

 K.C.B., F.E.G.S., etc. 



Sir H. Rawlinsoj^. — Before proceeding to offer any observations 

 on the geography of Southern Persia, I think it proper to ex- 

 plain that I wish these observations to be understood as applying 

 to a purely scientific and geographical subject. This is not the 

 place nor the occasion, to enter into any political disquisition. I 

 beg it to be understood, that in describing the geography of the 

 country, in which the now pending military operations are being 

 carried on, T offer no opinion as to the justice or the expediency of 

 the Persian war. As a geographer, I am content to take the com- 

 mencement of that war as a "feiit accompli;" and I hope soon to 

 be able to include the termination of it in the same category. The 

 expedition, as you are aware, on leaving Bombay, proceeded first to 



