able. In the Deshistan snow never falls,
and there is but little rain; heavy dews, however, occur at night, so
that the mornings are often fresh and cool; but the middle of the day
is almost always hot, and from March to November the temperature at noon
ranges from 90 deg. to 100 deg. of Fahrenheit. Occasionally it reaches 125 deg., and
is then fearfully oppressive. Fierce gusts laden with sand sweep over
the plain, causing vegetation to droop or disappear, and the animal
world to hide itself. Man with difficulty retains life at these trying
times, feeling a languor and a depression of spirits which are barely
supportable.10 All who can do so quit the plains and betake themselves
to the upland region till the great heats are past, and the advance of
autumn brings at any rate cool nights and mornings. The climate of the
uplands is severe in winter. Much snow falls, and the thermometer often
marks from ten to fifteen degrees of frost. From time to time there are
furious gales, and, as the spring advances, a good deal of wet falls;
but the summer and autumn are almost rainless. The heat towards midday
is often considerable, but it is tempered by cool winds, and even at the
worst is not relaxing. The variations of temperature are great in the
twenty-four hours, and the climate is, so far, trying; but, on the
whole, it seems to be neither disagreeable nor unhealthy.

A climate resembling that of the Deshtistan prevailed along the entire
southern coast of the Empire, from the mouth of the Tigris to that of
the Indus. It was exchanged in the lower valleys of the great streams
for a damp close heat, intolerably stifling and oppressive. The upper
valleys of these streams and the plains into which they expanded were at
once less hot and less moist, but were subject to violent storms, owing
to the near vicinity of the mountains. In the mountains themselves, in
Armenia and Zagros, and again in the Elburz, the climate was of a more
rigorous character--intensely cold in winter, but pleasant in the summer
time. [PLATE XXVII., Fig. 3.] Asia Minor enjoyed generally a warmer
climate than the high mountain regions; and its western and southern
coasts, being fanned by fresh breezes from the sea, or from the hills
of the interior, and cooled during the whole of the summer by frequent
showers, were especially charming. In Syria and Egypt the heats of
summer were somewhat trying, more especially in the Ghor or depressed
Jordan valley, and in t