‘GAZETTEER OF PERSIA VOL. I Comprising the Provinces of ASTARÁBÁD, SHÁHRUD-BÚSTAN, KHÚRÁSÁN, AND SÍSTÁN’ [‎31r] (66/722)

The peninsula of Potemkui or Mian Kali was up to the year 1873 un
inhabited ; but after this date Persian forts were built on the western side,
these forts consisted of defensive towers intended for the defence of the
Persian villages on the coast from the attacks of the Turkmans. Later on,
i u the year 1876, three towers were built on the extremity of the sand-
spit for a similar purpose. This peninsula is low, sandy, and marshy; in many
places it is covered with thick reeds and a thin brushwood. Leeds are still
more plentiful on the shores of the bay, and serve as a retreat for the boats
of t.ie puatical lurkmans from the pursuit of the Russian cruisers sent after
them from the Astarabad station.
the depth of Astarabad Bay in its deepest part is in its eastern por
tion, opposite the islands of Ashurada, and reaches to 20 or 25 feet; the
western part of the bay, being protected by the peninsula of Potemkui, is
less, the depth not attaining 20 feet anywhere. Going westward the
depth gradually decreases, and at 31 to 4 miles from the end it is not
as much as 6 feet. The bottom is mud mixed in places with sand.
The shores are generally low shelving sand-banks, almost entirely covered
with reeds; the southern shore is more shelving than the northern, which
from the lurkman shore to the meridian ol the Kara-Tapa is composed in
a great measure of sand and small particles of mud. This sand disappears
as the centre of the bay is approached; and in the deep water only mud is
met with. The southern shore is cut up by numerous streams and channels,
the beds of which are of a very adhesive mud. The ground to the west of the
river Kara-Tapa is particularly soft, and this extends over the whole of that
portion of the bay ; so that it is impossible to reach the shore on foot except at
the risk of sticking in the mud. The islands afford the most suitable landing
places in the bay, especially the island of Ashurada, opposite to which there is
12 feet of water not more than a cable length from the shore; and opposite
the two other islands of this group the same depth is found at two cables
length from the shore.
On the northern shore of these islands, that is, outside the bay, 12 feet
soundings Measurements of the depth of a body of water. are met with at a considerably greater distance; mz., 1 mile
from Great Ashur and 1| miles from Middling Ashur. On the northern
shore of Little Ashur a sand-bank runs out in a north-north-easterly direction,
where 12 feet of water is not to be found nearer than 3| miles from the
bank. Near the end of this sand-bank, in a depth of from 16 to 17 feet of
water, and 4| miles* in a direction bearing 15° N. E. from Little Ashur,
and 6f miles at a bearing of 51° from Great Ashur, is placed a floating
light ship. The height of the lantern above the sea is 38*5 feet, and its hori
zontal spread of light is 7'1 miles; but at an elevation of 10 feet the light is
visible up to 10| miles. The light ship is black and one-masted. By day a
yellow flag with a blue cross is hoisted, and at night a reflecting apparatus of
eight lamps. In stormy and thick weather a bell is rung every ten minutes.
The latitude of the light ship is 36° bS 7 30", and the longitude 53° 31/ 55" E.
of Greenwich; the compass deviation being2° 5'E. It lies 278 miles south
east from the island of Nargin, 255 miles south-east from the end of the
Shakow sand-spit that bounds Baku Bay, and 116 miles south-south-east
from the end of the island of Ogourchih. This light ship serves to mark
the passage by the narrow channel having a depth of from 15 to 20 feet,
which lies between the above-mentioned sand-bank and the Turkman coast.
The length of the channel from the light ship to the latitude of Little
Ashur is barely 4 miles; the width about a mile. At the western extremity
of the sand-bank, almost in mid-channel, lies a shoal marked off on the
# Probably German’ geographical miles ; = 4 - 603 English miles.
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