'Travels from India to England : comprehending a visit to the Burman Empire, and a journey through Persia, Asia Minor, European Turkey, &c., in the years 1825-26, by James Edward Alexander' [‎88] (145/412)

88 PERSIA.
in snakes: they were all chequered black and yellow, with the
dorsal and ventral fins of the common eel. None of them had the
paddle-shaped tail of the individual I observed on the Malabar
coast, which I am inclined to think belongs to an undescribed
species. Vast numbers of medusce, or sea-blubber, floated past the
vessel. I caught many of them, and never found two alike; some
were of a purple colour, others of an azure hue, and some pink :
many of them were a foot in diameter ; the greater part had six or
eight tentacula underneath, with ^ fringed circumference, and a
cross in the centre. We now also frequently caught large pomfret.
Several sharks were seen, and once a very large echineis nencrates,
or sucking-fish, which appeared to be eight feet in length; the tail
entire, and the body of a greenish colour.
On the 23d we passed the island of Kishm, which the poet Moore
says is celebrated for its grapes, although none have been produced
there within the memory of man. * His mistake, probably, arose
from supposing that kishmish, or the Persian term for raisin, was a
grape produced at this island. From the sea there is not a blade of
vegetation to be seen on the flat-topped and sandy hills of which
Kishm is composed; there is a stunted grass in the vallies, which
affords pasture to hares and antelopes. The length of the island is
sixty miles, its breadth fifteen.
On the 24th, we sailed over a mud flat, and steered N.E. by E. for
Bassadore, a station for cruizers on the N.W. of Kishm, and which
is the coolest birth in the Gulf. We anchored in the roads, two
miles off shore. Our commander landed, in order to ascertain
whether he was to take the despatches to Bushire, or send them
by another vessel. He returned with orders to proceed next
morning;