42 Carter on the Persian Gulf. [No. 1. 



up to the town of Kouefct at the top of the Gulf, and even far 

 beyond this into the plains of Mesopotamia. 



Lastly, turning our attention to the Persian Gulf itself, we find 

 that although the bottom is, as a matter of course, more or less 

 uneven, yet that it shallows generally, from the great fault marked 

 by the chain of mountains on the north-eastern side on towards the 

 Arabian coast. Hence the deep water, which nowhere exceeds 50 

 fathoms, is all on the Persian side, while a greater part of that on 

 the south-western half of the Gulf, especially where the great Pearl 

 Banks are situated, is not more than 10 fathoms deep. 



The principal Islands, too, are all on the Persian side and towards 

 the mouth of the Gulf, while those which are in the south-western 

 half are, with the exception of Bahrein, almost all insignificant, 

 either from their little size or low altitude. 



Geology. — On entering the Gulf, Lieut. Constable's specimens 

 from Has Mussundum show that this promontory aud the mountains 

 about it, are chiefly composed of a more or less fine, compact, lead- 

 blue passing into black, limestone, which in some parts is fossili- 

 ferous, as the remains of a large Pecten attached to some of the 

 specimens proves. 



Passing further in we come to the islands of Larrack and Hormuz, 

 which are twelve miles apart, and the former about twenty-six miles 

 north of Eas Mussundum. Larrack is 400, and Hormuz 700 feet 

 high. Prom Larrack we have specular iron-ore as its characteristic ; 

 and from Hormuz, rocksalt, sulphur, gypsum, specular iron-ore, and 

 pyrites. Hormuz is described as consisting of a plane of salt-rocks 

 about 50 feet above the level of the sea, out of which rise several 

 white peaks which attain the altitude mentioned. Around these 

 the salt-rocks present a dreary waste of ridges and ravines covered 

 with a soft red earth, which has been eliminated from their inter- 

 stices by deliquescence of the salt during the moist and rainy wea- 

 ther. The white peaks, on the other hand, are composed of a 

 greenish-white jasperous rock, like an ill-formed or decomposing 

 diorite, charged with nodules of pyrites and intensely impregnated 

 with salt ; this rock looks like a pseudo-trap diorite, that is, a trap- 

 diorite which has accidentally become mixed with stratified deposits 

 during its fluidity. 



