292 PROFESSOR 0. E. POST_, M.D. 



rainfall, have been preserved. I believe that it has been thus in Greece, 

 and probably it has been .so here. I have only to add that I regard the 

 paper as very interesting and valuable. Not having had time to read it 

 before to-night, I should not like to criticise it further. I can, therefore, 

 only express my gratification at such a paper having been read here, and 

 offer my thanks to the member who has so kindly contributed it to the 

 proceedings of this Society. 



Mr. W. St. Chad Boscawen, F.E.Hist.Soc. — As I resided at one time 

 for nearly three months in Beirut,' perhaps I may be allowed to refer to one 

 or two points upon which I may be able to throw a little light. I do not 

 speak on the subject of meteorology, because I know nothing about it ; but 

 rather with reference to Lebanon, a matter of some interest. There can 

 be no doubt that the Assyrian and Egyptian inscriptions show the time 

 when Lebanon was covered with large forests of cedar pine to be a very 

 early period. There is one interesting circumstance in regard to the pro- 

 posed restoration of these plantations. The present Turkish Ambassador in 

 this country, Eustem Pacha, was, at the time I was out there, Governor 

 of the Lebanon ; and I believe he and Midhat Pacha were the instigators 

 of important improvement in the Lebanon district, in the replanting of 

 the old forests. I journeyed on one occasion from the Damascus road to a 

 very out-of-the-way village about eight miles off — one of the worst roads 

 I ever travelled — and we found that all along the slope of the hill plantations 

 of firs had been established. I may specially mention that on the Damascus 

 road, about three miles from Beirut, a forest of firs covering an area 

 of about three miles had been planted. The trees had been growing about 

 six years when I saw them, and are now about twelve years old. The 

 inhabitants of the houses built in the neighbourhood of the wood are already 

 beginning to find the place much pleasanter now than before the trees were 

 planted. If the Governors of the Lebanon would only carry on this work 

 of replanting the mountains, and stop the cutting down of trees, which, 

 even at the present day, goes on in some parts of the Northern District, a 

 great improvement might, in a comparatively short period, be efi'ected in 

 the climate of the country. Perhaps it would not be going beyond the 

 scope of this Institute if I were to say, from the experience I had during 

 the time I was out there, that I never saw a Turkish Governor who did 

 so much in so short a time as Midhat Pacha did in that district, in road- 

 making, police organization, and other matters of social importance. Now, 

 unfortunately, he is lost to the work. 



Sir Joseph Fayrer. — May I ask whether there are any other observa- 

 tories where records were kept, besides those referred to by the author of this 

 paper ? 



Captain Francis Petrie, F.G.S. (Hon. Sec.)— I am informed that there 

 is one at Jerusalem, one at Jaffa, and two others, one being at Nabloos. 



Mr. Boscawen. — I think there is one at Nazareth. There certainly was 

 at the time I spoke of, namely in 1879. It was not elaborately fitted up, 



