274 Miscellaneous Intelligence. 
you an idea of our geographical position, I have noted, above, our lati- 
tude and approximate longitude. As | wish also to give you a glance 
at the physical features of this region, let me invite you to come with 
me upon the flat, terraced roof of m my house, where | am sure you will 
be delighted with the scene before you. Standing at an elevation of 
more than a mile above the ocean, and a thousand feet avove the adjoin- 
ing country, you may look down upon one of the ncaa and most fertile 
dreds of villages, is verdant with thousands of orchards, and rows 0 
poplars, willows and sycamores by the water-courses, and in the early 
summer waves with innumerable fields of golden grain. Here the 
peach, the nectarine, the apricot, the quince, the cherry, the pear, the 
apple, and the vine, flourish in luxuriance, and give the appearance of 
a variegated forest. ond the plain, you see the lake of Oroomiah, 
reflecting the purest azure, and studded over with numerous islands, 
while further on rise Hincued lofty mountains, their outlines projected 
on the cloudless Italian sky, and forming a beautiful contrast with the 
plain before you. The city of Oroomiah, about six miles distant, ping 
is so embos onto’ in trees as almost to be hidden from view, is the pro 
able birth-place of Zoroaster; and the mounds which are so con- 
spicuous in different parts of the plain, and which are formed entirely 
of ashes with a scanty soil upon them, are supposed to be the places 
where the sacred fire was ever kept burning, and the Persian priests 
The temperature of this elevated region is very uniform, and the 
greater part of the year very delightful. During the months of June, 
July, August, eee er, and sometimes October, there is little rain, and 
.the sky is rarely overcast. Indeed, I may say that often for weeks to- 
gether not a cloud is to be seen. As a specimen of the climate in sum- 
mer, I send accompanying this my meteorological —— “es the month 
of August last. The observations were taken at our house on Mt. Seir, 
but do not differ essentially from those taken on the meg at the sa 
season, except that the thermometer is here a few degrees pes “and 
the air pee alr drier, especially at night. 
e has ever travelled in this country, without being ae tig at 
the Saiucaie with which distant objects are seen. Moun s fifiy, 
traveller ; and the clump of trees indicating a village, which seems 
rise only ‘two or three miles before him, he ‘will be often as many hours 
in reaching. 
Tn this connection, you will be interested to know that the apparent 
convergence of the sun’s rays, at a point diametrically opposite its dise, 
which, if I mistake not, Sir D. Brewster peeks: of as a very rare phe 
non, is here so common that not a week passes in summer when 
os whole ps Ho at sunset is se striped with tens © very much like 
