60 
RESIDENCE OE THE MISSION AT BUSHIRE. 
a half low water, and in quarter less five at high. The ground was 
marl and very thick mud, so tenacious, that it was necessary every 
three or four days to move the anchor. The refraction was so great, 
that, for their daily observations at the sun's meridian, they were obliged 
to allow for it more than what is noted in the nautical tables. In my 
visit on board, I took the following bearings from the quarter-deck. 
Town N. 55 E. Concorde Lodge E. Halila Peak S. 70 E. Asses Ears 
and Reshire Point S. 35 E. Cape Bang (the extremity of the land) 
N. 11 E. 
The water of Bushire has a cathartic quality of most immediate 
effect in a stranger s habit, but after the experience of about a month 
it ceases to have so violent a power. 
The meteorological journal which I kept may not be useless, and I 
give therefore the month of November in the Appendix. On the night 
of the 10th of that month, a most violent storm blew from the north¬ 
west. The whole atmosphere was in a blaze of fire; the claps of thun¬ 
der succeeded one another with a rapidity, which rendered them scarcely 
separable, and the rain poured down in torrents; but when all was 
over, the air possessed a freshness which was most grateful. The storms 
from the N.W. are very frequent in the winter; and though in no part 
of the world do I recollect to have seen one so tremendous as this, I 
am told that it was not to be compared with some which are experienced 
at Bushire. 
In three or four days the mountains which bore N. N. E. from our 
dwelling were already covered with snow. This was reckoned early in 
the season. The people soon begun to put on their warmer clothing. 
Coughs and colds became very prevalent, particularly among the Indian 
servants, who were clad more lightly than either the Europeans or the 
natives. 
About the 20th of November the people commence ploughing; the 
soil is so light that it is turned up with very little labour; the plough, 
therefore, is dragged mostly by one ox only, and not unfrequently even 
by an ass. All their agricultural implements are of the rudest con- 
