DESCRIPTION OF ARABIA. 



59 



as well as of natural productions. While the ni- 

 habitants of the plains and valleys suffer from heat, 

 and enjoy perpetual abundance, those on the moun- 

 tains are obUged to wrap themselves in sheepskms, 

 and subsist by plunder. In the desert the thermom- 

 eter is generally above 100° during the night, at 

 108° in the morning, and in the course of the day it 

 rises to 110°, and sometimes higher, even m the 

 coolest and best shaded parts. All travellers who 

 have visited the coasts of the Red Sea appear to 

 have been oppressed by the extraordinary heat, and 

 to have considered the temperature of other tropical 

 countries as moderate in comparison. Burckhardt 

 remarks that the climate of Mecca is sultry and un- 

 wholesome ; the rocks that enclose its narrow val- 

 ley interrupt the northern breezes, and reflect the 

 rays of the sun with redoubled intensity. The air 

 at Medina is much colder in winter ; but in summer 

 it is said that the heat is greater here than m any 

 other part of Hejaz. At Mocha, it averages from 

 90° to 95° in July ; owing to its vicinity to the arid 

 sands of Africa, over which the south-east wind 

 blows for so long a continuance as not to be cooled 

 in its short passage across the strait.* In Muscat 

 the thermometer varies from 92° to 103° during the 

 day, and the heat of the night is felt to be almost 

 equally oppressive and unfavourable to European 

 constitutions. Among the mountains of Petraea the 

 diversity is much greater ; while, in the upper re- 

 gions, the maximum in May was 75° ; in the lower 

 country, and particularly on the seashore, it stood 

 from 102° to 105°, and sometimes at 110°. In the 

 desert, near the Euphrates, Griffith observed that 

 the variation in the thermometer, from two to tour 

 in the day and the same hours in the morning, vras 

 frequently sixteen degrees ; and that, during the 

 prevalence of the land-winds, it rose to 132 under 



* Valentia, vol. ii. chap. 8. 



