crops. The
spring-time in Susiana is delightful. Soft airs fan the cheek, laden
with the scent of flowers; a carpet of verdure is spread over the
plains; the sky is cloudless, or overspread with a thin gauzy veil; the
heat of the sun is not too great; the rivers run with full banks and
fill the numerous canals; the crops advance rapidly towards perfection;
and on every side a rich luxuriant growth cheers the eye of the
traveller.

On the opposite side of the Empire, in Syria and Palestine, a moister,
and on the whole a cooler climate prevails. In Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon
there is a severe winter, which lasts from October to April; much snow
falls, and the thermometer often marks twenty or thirty degrees of
frost. On the flanks of the mountain ranges, and in the highlands of
Upper and Coele-Syria, of Damascus, Samaria, and Judsea, the cold is
considerably less; but there are intervals of frost; snow falls, though
it does not often remain long upon the ground; and prolonged chilling
rains make the winter and early spring unpleasant. In the low regions,
on the other hand, in the _Shephelah_, the plain of Sharon, the
Phoenician coast tract, the lower valley of the Orontes, and again in
the plain of Esdraelon and the remarkable depression from the Merom lake
to the Dead Sea, the winters are exceedingly mild; frost and snow are
unknown; the lowest temperature is produced by cold rains and fogs,
which do not bring the thermometer much below 40 deg.. During the summer
these low regions, especially the Jordan valley or Ghor, are excessively
hot, the heat being ordinarily of that moist kind which is intolerably
oppressive. The upland plains and mountain flanks experience also a
high temperature, but there the heat is of a drier character, and is
not greatly complained of; the nights even in summer are cold, the dews
being often heavy; cool winds blow occasionally, and though the sky is
for months without a cloud, the prevailing heat produces no injurious
effects on those who are exposed to it. In Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon the
heat is of course still less; refreshing breezes blow almost constantly;
and the numerous streams and woods give a sense of coolness beyond the
markings of the thermometer.

There is one evil, however, to which almost the whole Empire must have
been subject. Alike in the east and in the west, in Syria and Palestine,
no less than in Babylonia Proper and Susiana, there are times when
a fierce and scorching wi