279 



OEDINARY MEETING, April 19, 188G. 



D. Howard, Esq., V.P.C.S., in the Chair. 



The Minutes of the last Meeting were read and confirmed, and the fol- 

 lowing Elections were announced : — 



Life Member :— Eev. R. Taylor, M.A., N. S. Wales. 



Associates :— Rev. Canon F. R. T. Balfour, S. Africa ; W. Russell, Esq., 

 N. S. Wales ; Eev. Canon Taylor, D.D., Liverpool ; Eev. C. H. Wainwright^ 

 M.A., Blackpool. 



A lecture was then delivered by Mr. W. St. C. Boscawen, F.R.Hist. 

 Soc, on " Recently Deciphered Assyrian Inscriptions." A brief discussion 

 took place, after which the following paper was read by Mr. H. Cadman 

 Jones, M.A., the author being unavoidably absent on duty at Beirut. 



NOTES ON THE METEOROLOGY OF SYRIA AND 

 PALESTINE. By Rev. George E. Post, M.D., Pro- 

 fessor of Surgeiy and Diseases of tlie Eye and Ear, in 

 the Syrian Protestant College at Beirut, Syria. 



THE meteorology of Syria and Palestine can be understood 

 only when taken in connexion with that of Northern 

 Africa, Northern Arabia, the Syrian desert, Asia Minor, and 

 the adjacent Mediterranean Sea. 



The climate of Northern Africa, except on the sea coast, 

 and of Northern Arabia, and the Syrian desert, is exceedingly 

 hot and dry. So thoroughly is the air heated in its passage 

 over the Sahara, that rain seldom falls in Upper and Middle 

 Egypt, where there are neither mountains, nor any large body 

 of watei", to cool the air and precipitate its moisture. A 

 glance at the accompanying tables, which were compiled from 

 the records of the Lee Observatory of the Syrian Protestant 

 College at Beirut, and at the graphic chart, which represents 

 the same facts, as regards the direction of the wind, in a 

 different form, will show that the south-west wind is the 

 prevailing one on the Levantine coast, having blown for 172 

 days of 1883, 170 days of 1884, and 138 days as the mean 

 average of eleven years and a half. The next in frequency is 

 the west, which blew in 1885 for 66 days, and a general 

 average of 50 days for eleven years and a half. 



