the Austro-Hungarian Empire. 315 



The day is often excessively hot, but half-an-hour after sunset 

 the temperature falls so rapidly as to endanger the health of the 

 traveller, I have frequently been compelled to travel in the 

 lightest clothing possible through the day, and to use an 

 umbrella as a protection from the powerful sun. Shortly after 

 sunset the heavy greatcoat was in requisition to protect me from 

 the consequence of exposure to sudden changes of temperature 

 — Hungarian fever or ague. The extremes of temperature be- 

 tween winter and summer are extraordinary, and range in the 

 mountains of Transylvania from — 30' F. to 93° F.* 



The winter is usually severe, but is very variable in charac- 

 ter. In general it commences towards the end of November 

 with frost and snow. The lowest temperature is ordinarily 

 reached in December, The snow is not often more than two or 

 three inches (" a few centimetres ") thick, and does not con- 

 tinue long, although it is often rencAved by fresh falls. Spring 

 is ushered in by storms of wind and rain, which are dried up 

 about the middle of March. Although this period is occasion- 

 ally followed by agreeable weather, the spring is very uncertain, 

 and is often stormy and wet. Even May seldom brings the 

 pleasing weather for which it is celebrated. The temperature 

 often reaches 77° and 95° F., and the heat hinders the growth 

 of grass and the expansion of the leaves of trees. Another 

 year cold rains, and even severe frosts, injure the orchards, 

 vineyards, and field crops. Hail is often injurious in early 

 summer, as I have myself witnessed, I shall never forget the 

 complete destruction of crops over a considerable tract of country 

 in the Schiitt district of Upper Hungary, The crops over some 

 800 acres of land were in this case literallv viinced and com- 

 pletely destroyed. The evil ceased as suddenly as it commenced, 

 and within a few yards there was rye completely cut down and 

 broken, and the rest standing almost untouched. The chief 

 characteristics of the summer are its heat, the temperature in 

 the plains rising as high as 95° and 99° F., and its fluctuations 

 of temperature between night and day. The air in summer 

 contains but little moisture and deposits no dew, but severe 

 rain-storms not unfrequently pass over the face of the country, 

 exerting a most beneficial effect upon the vegetation. The most 

 dependable season is autumn. The beginning of September 

 usually brings fine settled weather, Avhich is continued to the 

 end of October or middle of November, when winter is intro- 

 duced with cloudy skies, dense mists, and gales from the north- 

 east, 



* The above temperatures are furnished by Karl K'leti in his Shizze der 

 Landeskimde Ungarns, and translated into degrees Fahrenheit according to 

 Hofman and De la Rue. 



