Page:Kennedy, Robert John - A Journey in Khorassan (1890).djvu/105

 Englishman who has been many years in the Russian service, and who sensibly makes the best of his existence in the muddy little village, where he occupies a fairly comfortable house. From him I learnt that a concession of all the fishing in the Persian waters of the Caspian is held by a Russian merchant, who pays the Shah an annual sum of 45,000l. for the privilege, and makes a large fortune out of it. The whole of this northern part of Persia, in striking contrast to the sandy steppes we had left, is hilly, thickly wooded, and saturated with moisture; but as a natural consequence it is, during part of the year, a perfect fever bed. From Gez a night's easy steaming brought us to Meshed-i-Sar, which we reached at daybreak, and after being delayed several hours in this open and entirely unprotected roadstead, where passengers and cargo can only be disembarked in calm weather, we landed in one of the large flat-bottomed Persian barges, which came out about three miles to meet us, and which rolled and pitched in the heavy surf in a way which put the sea legs, or rather stomachs, of the passengers to a very severe test. On landing