88 THE BOOK OF THE PEARL
diverted
some of the attention which the Persian waters had been receiving, but
it was not long before these regained their ascendancy.
In
1838, Lieutenant J. R. Wellsted, an officer in the British India
service, reported that the fisheries of the gulf employed 4300 boats,
manned by somewhat more than 30,000 men.1 Of these boats,
3500 were from the Island of Bahrein, 100 from the Persian coast, and
the remaining 700 from the Pirate Coast situated between Bahrein and
the entrance to the Gulf of Oman. Lieutenant Wellsted estimated the
value of the pearls secured annually as approximately £400,000, which
is somewhat less than the average value of the output in recent years.
Twenty-seven years later, according to Sir Lewis Pelly,2
who was in the Indian service from 1851 to 1877, there were 1500 boats
at Bahrein, and the annual return from the whole fishery was £400,000,
the same as previously reported by Wellsted. In 1879, the value of the
output was estimated at £600,000 by the British Resident, Colonel Ross,
and at £800,000 by Captain L. E. Durand, of the British Protectorate
of the Persian Gulf. Owing to the increased market value, the average
output in the last five years has amounted to approximately four
million dollars annually. This refers to the local value only, which is
greatly increased by the time the pearls leave the markets in Bombay
and Bagdad.
The
Persian Gulf is nearly 600 miles long, with an average width of
somewhat more than 100 miles. The Strait of Ormus—thirty to sixty miles
wide—connects it with the Gulf of Oman, which opens directly into the
Arabian Sea. The depth of water rarely exceeds thirty fathoms.
Oyster-reefs are well distributed throughout the gulf, and are in
greatest abundance on the Arab side between the 24th and 27th degrees
of north latitude and the 50th and 54th degrees of east longitude, at a
distance of from a few hundred yards to sixty miles from the shore, and
especially in the vicinity of the Bahrein Islands. The oysters are
scattered over level areas of coral rock and sand, with depths ranging
from two to eighteen fathoms.3 The divers rarely descend in
deeper water than twelve fathoms, notwithstanding that valuable pearls
are apparently obtainable at greater depths.
Although
the British Protectorate extends over the Persian Gulf, insuring the
peaceful prosecution of the fisheries and the settlement of intertribal
contentions by the government resident, the fisheries are under the
regulations of the maritime Arab sheiks. The restrictions imposed by
these, however, are principally with a view to collecting a revenue
from each boat employed. The total amount realized thereby
1 Wellsted, "Travels in Arabia," London, 3 Schlagintweit, "Nachrichtsblatt der
1838, Vol. I, ch. 17, pp. 264, 265. deutschen Gesellschaft," Frankfurt-am-Main,
2In report to the Government of Bombay, 1883, pp. 153-156. dated December 15, 1865.
