164 Extracts from the Journals. [July, 



tuie, from its fine exposure to the open sea, from which the wind 

 prevails at all seasons of the year. The force and constancy of 

 the southwest wind is such as to be constantly making its impress 

 upon the land; the sand rolled up by the sea, is raised into the air 

 and driven in such vast quantities into the interior, southeast of 

 the city, as to form there, high ridges, which by gradual advances 

 of a few feet each year, are covering up trees, gardens, vineyards, 

 and even houses themselves when they are not removed in antici- 

 pation ot the calamity. 



Mosul. — No one can cast an eye at the records of this place, 

 without being struck with the extreme heat of the weather during 

 the summer months. So excessive indeed is the temperature 

 that it will not be strange if some of the readers of this article are 

 incredulous with regard to the accuracy of the observations, from 

 which the above abstract was made. But the writer may state, 

 that before the place of observation was fixed upon for the sum- 

 mer of 1844, three thermometers were .suspended for several days 

 in succession, in the most eligible situations in the house in which 

 he then resided, (a house favorably situated too, it being on the 

 highest ground in the city,) and that among these a place was 

 chosen, which, while it was not affected by the confined air of the 

 court, was also in no way exposed to the direct rays of the sun, 

 and as little as possible to the reflected rays. Moreover, the op- 

 portunity was afforded of occasionally comparing the temperature 

 thus given, with that of a thermometer suspended in a good posi- 

 tion, at the country residence of the French consul, among the 

 ruins of ancient Nineveh ( ?), and there is therefore every reason to 

 believe, that local causes had very little effect on the mercury of 

 the thermometer with which the record was made. The tempera- 

 ture at 9 o'clock p. M., strongly corroborates this, as does also the 

 fact that the removal of the thermometer into the sun at noon, 

 would always cause the mercury to rise at once to 144 or 146 

 deg. On account of this excessive heat, all who are able, have 

 rooms fitted up in their cellars, where they retreat to spend the 

 middle of the day. The nights are uniformly spent on the flat 

 roofs, dew and rain being wholly unknown during the summer 

 season. One peculiarity growing out of this extreme heat of the 

 climate, was often the subject of our remarks. Contact with every 

 thing dry communicated the sensation of heat, our beds seemed to 

 have been just scorched with a w^arming-pan, and stone floors 

 appeared as if endowed with the power of generating caloric. 

 Instead of being refreshed by the cooling sensation which a change 

 of clothes ordinarily gives in the summer, the linen taken out of 

 our coolest wardrobes seemed always, on putting it on, to have 

 come roasting hot from the mouth of some glowing furnace. 



Respecting Jerusalem and Oorrnia, not having visited those 



