DESCRIPTION AND CLIMATE OF REGION. 9 



Developments in this region have until recently been very slow, but 

 those who read the signs of the times there foresee sonic interesting- 

 changes in the near future. 



There are several ways in which the Persian Gulf region may be 

 visited: By comfortable steamers of the British India Line from Bom- 

 bay, which run weekly and form the easiest and quickest approach; 

 by caravan from Damascus, in fourteen days, to Bagdad; by carriage 

 from Trebizond to Mosul and down the Tigris (on a raft of inflated 

 sheepskins) to Bagdad: via Teheran and Ispahan on mule back to 

 Bushire or Bagdad; or by the Anglo-Arabian and Persian Steamship 

 Company, of Leadenhall street. London, which keeps up a fairly good 

 service to and from the gulf. This company runs steamers at least 

 once a month, and frequently semimonthly, stopping at Port Said, 

 Suez, and Aden. 



The Turkish quarantine regulations at Bassorah require of all pas- 

 sengers on boats from India ten days* quarantine, while only five are 

 demanded of this Anglo-Arabian Company coming direct from Europe. 

 The easiest way, therefore, to reach the gulf will be to join one of this 

 company's boats at Port Said, Suez, or Aden. Returning, one can take 

 a boat of the British India Line to Bombay, if he desires to call at any 

 of the ports on the coast, which are closed by quarantine to boats going 

 up to Bassorah but open to all steamers returning from there. 



CLIMATE. 



The Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman are among the hottest 

 regions in the world. Maskat. while not as warm as Jacobabad, is 

 so hot that the thermometer registers 117° to 120° F. in the shade, and 

 for nights and days the temperature has been known to remain some- 

 where about 110 c F. The sea water in the harbor, as taken for the 

 ship's engines, was registered on the log of the steamer as 96° F., and 

 the eight Europeans who live in the place, in order to make sleep a 

 possibility, resort to the use of special machines, like fanning mills, 

 which force a draft of air through a perpetually wet screen. As high 

 as 124 F. in the shade is recorded for the river Shat-el-Arab by the 

 " Persian Gulf Pilot." The Europeans spend as much time as possi- 

 ble during the day in darkened, lower-story rooms, and the nights on 

 the flat roofs of the houses. Nor is the heat by any means alwa}s a dry 

 one, but it is often muggy and oppressively moist. The winters are as 

 delightful, with their bright sunshine and cool breezes, as southern 

 California. The rainfall is about 6 inches, according to Mr. Mac- 

 kirdv. United States vice-consul, and occurs in the spring months. 

 No rains fall during the principal date harvest in August and Septem- 

 ber, which are at the same time the hottest months. Owing to this 

 long, excessive heat at Maskat the dates ripen earlier than they do 

 farther north. 



