ns is greater, as may be imagined, in
Upper Mesopotamia than in the south. The winters are cold, with
snowfalls that may last for several months, but with the beginning of
the dry season, in May, a tropical heat sets in which lasts until the
beginning of November, when the rain begins. Assyria proper, that is,
the eastern side of Mesopotamia, is more affected by the mountain ranges
than the west. In the Euphrates Valley, the heat during the dry season,
from about May till November, when for weeks, and even months, no cloud
is to be seen, beggars description; but strange enough, the Arabs who
dwell there at present, while enduring the heat without much discomfort,
are severely affected by a winter temperature that for Europeans and
Americans is exhilarating in its influence.

From what has been said, it will be clear that the Euphrates is, _par
excellence_, the river of Southern Mesopotamia or Babylonia, while the
Tigris may be regarded as the river of Assyria. It was the Euphrates
that made possible the high degree of culture, that was reached in the
south. Through the very intense heat of the dry season, the soil
developed a fertility that reduced human labor to a minimum. The return
for sowing of all kinds of grain, notably wheat, corn, barley, is
calculated, on an average, to be fifty to a hundred-fold, while the date
palm flourishes with scarcely any cultivation at all. Sustenance being
thus provided for with little effort, it needed only a certain care in
protecting oneself from damage through the too abundant overflow, to
enable the population to find that ease of existence, which is an
indispensable condition of culture. This was accomplished by the
erection of dikes, and by directing the waters through channels into the
fields.

Assyria, more rugged in character, did not enjoy the same advantages.
Its culture, therefore, not only arose at a later period than that of
Babylonia, but was a direct importation from the south. It was due to
the natural extension of the civilization that continued for the greater
part of the existence of the two empires to be central in the south. But
when once Assyria was included in the circle of Babylonian culture, the
greater effort required in forcing the natural resources of the soil,
produced a greater variety in the return. Besides corn, wheat and rice,
the olive, banana and fig tree, mulberry and vine were cultivated, while
the vicinity of the mountain ranges furnished an abu