80 Meteorological Observations in Western Asia. 
mountains, I have been struck day after day and week after — 
week with the difference observable in the meteorology of their 
two sides. ‘Towards the north, fogs and clouds, and towards the 
south, a clear and blue sky, were the almost universal order of the 
day. Early in the morning indeed, the view from the mountains 
towards the northern horizon is sometimes singularly clear ; but 
low beneath the feet of the observer, a vast sea of clouds stretches 
before him, and he rarely gets a glimpse, of what he so much 
wishes, the distant Euxine as first seen by the “Ten Thousand” 
in their signal retreat. In a short time after the sun rises, the 
clouds begin to creep up the declivity facing the north, and soon 
afterwards, attaining the summit, they pour over it towns the 
south, presenting a white sheet along the mountain ridge not un- 
like that of the brow of our own Niagara. ‘The destination of © 
the vapory cataract of these high regions is however very differ- 
ent from the one of water which it so naturally suggests. Hardly 
do the clouds pass these mountain summits before they begin to 
melt away and disappear in the arid atmosphere, which waits to 
receive them. Rarely, very rarely, during the summer months, 
does a north wind prevail so strong as to carry the clouds un- 
broken over an extended space so far in the interior as Erzeroom. | 
It is only when the season advances, as in October or November, 
and when the temperature is such as to give the atmosphere a 
greatly decreased capacity for mojsture, that the cloudy, damp, 
and stormy weather of other mountain top ions — to ht 
and the rainy season sets in.* 
Trebizond is remarkable for the equable nature of its” a 
- mate as to temperature, and for the predominance of moisture in 
_ its atmosphere, compared with other places mentioned in the 
above tables. By the abstract in the last of these, it will be seen 
to present a less range between the extremes of a year, than any 
other place besides Beirfit. If however the average daily range 
‘been taken as a standard of comparison, the result — 
oa 
* Exce ptions of course occur in every climate, and one that took place in that of 
the plain if Erzeroom during the last season is worthy of mention. On the nights 
of June ‘Rist and 22d, the writer travelling with a company in tents, encountered 
ire plain and the Surrounding mountains, covered with snow six or eight inches 
was said | that raed 4 seit living had. ever witnessed any thing « of the kind, 
wa 
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