348 ME. E. T. GOTTHER ON THE 



rule, snow may be expected to lie on the ground in the plain for 

 three or four months, and on the hills (6000 feet) in streaks until 

 well into July. In the winter of 1895 there is said to have been 

 no sunshine for five weeks. 



"When spring comes the snow melts, often with surprising 

 rapidity, and a few days' warm sunshine . produces a marvellous 

 change in the aspect of the country. Irises of a delicate purple 

 colour, and white and pink crocuses are in flower before the end 

 of March ; the plum blossoms by the 1st of April, and sometimes 

 even in March, with snow on the ground. The quiace blossomed 

 on April 18th in 1891. At the same time the storks and hoopoes 

 return from their winter pilgrimages ; the earliest record of 

 the stork at Urmi seems to be March 14th, in 1898. 



Summer commences about St. Greorge's day, on May 6th, and 

 usually lasts unbroken until late in October ; popular tradition 

 prolongs it until the second St. Greorge's day in autumn, on the 

 first Monday in November (O.S.). Rarely, as in 1895, a few 

 rain-storms interrupt the continuity of the hot weather. 



During the warmest months it is hot even at 6 o'clock in the 

 morning. The glaring, eye- dazing sky is unrelieved by any 

 clouds. The shade temperature rises to 90° F. in the open, and 

 much higher among the sun-baked mud-walls of the villages. The 

 nights are generally cool, and become uncomfortably cold during 

 the latter months of summer, owing to unchecked radiation. 

 The greater number of the fruit-trees are in blossom in the first 

 week of June. The first fruits to ripen are the white and morella 

 cherries and plums, which are followed by peaches and apricots, 

 and in August by an abundance of excellent nectarines, melons,, 

 grapes, and also of cucumbers, vegetable-marrows, black and red 

 tomatoes, &c. 



No climate would seem better adapted for the growth of the- 

 vine. The grapes of the plain of Urmi are magnificent, both in 

 flavour, size, lusciousness, and variety. On the other hand, the 

 severe winters do not permit of the cultivation of the orange and 

 the lemon. 



'Rainfall. — The rainfall seems to have been recorded during 

 the year 1853-54*, but I have been unable to discover any 

 subsequent series of observations. During that year 547 milli- 

 metres of rain seem to have fallen, and the monthly rainfall was 



* Supan, in Petermann's ' Mittheilungen,' Erganzungsheft No. 124, 1898. 



