TEHERAN. 
231 
have on the English coasts, and are called by the Persians the shah 
mahee , “ king of fishes.” In the end of that month we received a fresh 
salmon of twenty-five pounds from the same sea also, as a present from 
the Ameen-ed-Doulah. The Persians call it kizzel or golden: it w as to 
the palate as good as any English salmon, though with some of us it 
did not agree quite so well. 
From the account which the Prime Minister gave us of a stone 
which is burnt in Mazanderan , there must be coals of the finest kind 
in that province. Among the products of Persia are gum tragacanth, 
assafcetida, yellow berries, henna (coarser than that of Egypt,) madder 
roots, which grow wild upon the mountains, and are brought down for 
sale by the Eelauts or wandering tribes; the Hindoos only export it as 
returns. Indigo is cultivated for the dying of linen and of beards, and 
grows about Shooster Desfoul, near Kherat , and in the Laristan. It is 
not so fine as the indigo from India, which indeed is a great article of the 
import trade of Persia. They use the leaf only for their beards. There 
is no cochineal. Cotton is produced enough for the interior consump¬ 
tion of the country. The best manufacture which they make is a cot¬ 
ton cloth, called the kaduck; of this there is an exportation to Turkey. 
The finest is manufactured at Ispahan. The great and richest produce 
is the silk of Ghilan and Mazanderan. The manufacturing towns of 
Persia are Yezd, silken stuffs, stuffs of silk and cotton; Kashan , silks and 
copper ware; Koom, earthenware; Resht, silks, coarse woollen cloths 
of which the tekmis are made; Shiraz , swords, fire-arms, and glass-ware; 
Ispahan , brocades, cotton clothes; Kermamhah , arms; Kerman , 
shawls. 
4th of May. The most beautiful part of the plain about Teheran is 
that to the S. E. The verdure, when I left the country, was most luxu¬ 
riant; and the whole animated by peasantry and their cattle. Yet 
though the spring was thus far advanced, the mountain Demawend 
(whenever the clouds, which almost always concealed it, rolled away) 
appeared more than ever covered with snow. The direct distance to it 
