288 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



twenty-six days, and the longest two hundred and twenty-one days, while 

 the mean duration of each season has been one hundred and eighty -eight 

 days. On the other hand, the shortest dry season for the same period was 

 one hundred and thirty-four days, and the longest two hundred and eleven 

 days, while the mean duration of each was one hundred and seventy-seven • 

 days. 



COMMENCEMENT OF THE RAIN. 



The time of the commencement of the rain is uncertain, and varies 

 many weeks between the two extremes. In September the people begin to 

 talk about rain, and to look for the token of it, but rain very seldom falls 

 during that month, and further, that in eleven of the twenty-two years 

 under consideration no rain fell in October. When rain does not fall until 

 the middle or last of November, great anxiety and distress are caused by 

 the delay. In four of the twenty-two years there was a slight fall of rain 

 in September, but rain during this month is to be considered as exceptional. 



THE EARLY, MIDDLE, AND LATTER RAINS. 



Every one is familiar with the terms the " early " and the " latter " rains, 

 which refer to parts of the rainy season. The rainy season, however, is 

 really divided into three parts, and it is during the middle one of these 

 periods that the most rain falls. It is very seldom that many days of 

 rainy weather occur in succession, but whether the rainy periods are of one 

 or several days' duration, they are sure" to be followed by one or many days 

 of fine weather, and these fine days of the Winter and early Spring months 

 are some of the most enjoyable that the climate of Palestine affords. The 

 "early" rains are depended upon to moisten the earth and fit it for the 

 reception of seed, and hence it is a general signal for the commencement 

 of plowing. The middle, or heavy Winter rains, furnish the real water 

 supply of the year. The earth is then saturated, springs are replenished, 

 and cisterns are filled with water. The " latter " rains, which fall in gentle 

 showers, are indispensable to the perfection of the grain. However copious 

 may have been the Winter rains, unless the "latter" rain falls, the harvest 

 is wholly or in part a failure ; hence this is looked for by the farmers espe- 

 cially, and by all the people of the land as well, with peculiar anxiety. 



CONNECTION OF WIND WITH RAIN. 



Most of the rain storms come from a westerly direction. Of those noted 

 during a period of twenty-two years, forty-nine were from the northwest, 

 one hundred and six from the west, and two hundred and thirty-eight were 

 from the southwest. On one hundred and forty-nine occasions, however, 

 an easterly wind immediately preceded the change which ushered in the 

 storm. Not infrequently the direction of the wind changes during the 

 storm; if it passes to the north the rain ceases. A change from any 

 quarter to the southwest usually indicates a continuance of the rain. 



SNOW, EARTHQUAKES, TEMPERATURE. 



On three hundred and sixty-nine occasions the temperature of the air 

 became lower as the rain fell; on ninety occasions it rose slightly, and on 

 forty-seven occasions it remained stationary, or nearly so, until the rain 

 ceased. During twenty-two years eight seasons have passed without snow, 

 against fourteen seasons when snow has fallen. In general snow falls in 



