abound1 in grain, &c. It also produces indigo, assafoetida,
and a kind of saffron.8 The other route lay nearly westward
from the Bander Abbas; it passed through the village of
Kahristaun, near the mills of Daulooin, and through Lar.
The principal town, Lar, is well built, and is now an improving
place. It is defended by a strong castle on an
elevated rock, and possesses a good bazar, with numerous
well constructed cisterns to secure the necessary supply of
water in times of continued drought.3
The road onward to the Jebel-abad range passes the
villages of Beruz and Benarooz, each of which has some
ancient remains; those at the latter place are traditionally
connected with Alexander; and at the former with his celebrated
tutor, Aristotle.4
The whole of the country on this line, and especially the
flourishing Julga of Lar, is irrigated by means of kanats, and
appears to be well cultivated. It produces fruits, grain, &c.,
in abundance; and the same may be said of the Nurmanshir
district, which lies towards the centre of the province. This
fertile district commences near the borders of Baluchistan,
and has a width varying from 30 to 75 miles: its principal
town is Bumm. On the northern and southern side of this
place is a mountain range of considerable elevation. In
addition to the capital there are some small towns and
villages, surrounded by fields and gardens, which produce
all kinds of grain, madder, cotton, honey, gum (from the
babool tree), fruits, and nuts,5 _ . .
Westward from Nurmanshir to the capital it is chiefly
desert, but with some cultivation about the villages, which
are most numerous and thriving in the rocky country between
the capital and Fars.6
The city of Kirman is not far from the mountains, and
' occupies part of a spacious plain, which is intersected by
I MS. Journal of an Officer of the Indian Medical Staff.
II Ogilby’s Asia, p. 10.
8 Ibid.; and Tavernier’s Travels, p. 253.
4 MS. Journal of an Officer of the Indian Medical Staff.
8 Pottinger’s Travels, pp. 201, 221, 8tc. ’ Ibid., p. 233.
different roads coming from Khorasan, Balkh, Bokhara, and
Ma-wera-l-nahr (Transoxiana), as well as from the northern
parts of Persia. It is surrounded by a high mud wall,
pierced with four gates, and defended by nineteen towers, or
bastions, in addition to the ark.
In the bazar (which is extensive, and partly covered with
elegant domes), are exposed for sale fine shawls, matchlock-
guns, numuds, carpets, the celebrated wool of the province,1
gums, fruits, &c., in addition to fur-skins, silk, tea, coffee,
copper utensils, and different articles imported from Bokhara
and other countries.
The excellent surveys performed by the officers of the
Indian navy have made us well acquainted with the Persian
Gulf, on its eastern shores. Fourteen singular precipitous
masses of rock form a chain (partly double) of different sized
islands, nearly parallel to the coast of Kirman. They are
apparently of volcanic origin; and, being almost deprived of
vegetation, with the exception of the rich but sickly Kenn,
their appearance is strikingly dreary and arid.
H ormuz (Ormuz) is the eastern extremity of the chain,
and consists of a number of isolated hills of rock-salt and
sulphur, which compose a mass of about 15 miles in circumference,
8 destitute of springs and vegetation, but abounding
in copper and iron ore.3 On a plain, near the northern
extremity of the island, are the cisterns and other remains
of the once commercial Hormuz; which, in the time of its
prosperity, had 4000 houses and 40,000 inhabitants.4
The port and anchorage, which gave such importance to
the spot, are within two miles of the town. The present
inhabitants number about 300, and these are employed in preparing
rock-salt, from which the Imam of Maskat (Muscat),
as proprietor, derives a considerable revenue. The island lies
nearly 16 miles5 from the estuary of the Minnow river.
1 From short-legged sheep, and equal to that of Cashmir.— Pottinger’s
Travels, pp. 224 to 235.
8 Kempthome’s Survey of the Eastern Shores of the Persian Gulf.—Vol. V.
Part. II., p. 214, of the Royal Geographical Journal.
a Ibid., p. 275. 4 In the time of the Portuguese.—Ibid.
300 stadia, according to Nearchus, which, at 111 1A, would give 161 miles.