in the Temperature of Whitef. 49 



want of wood, render that part of Greece an iinpleasing 

 residence in winter.... *S'f6' ch. xxxiv. With what cau- 

 tion we ouglit to receive such general accounts of cli- 

 mate, may be understood from the fact, that in Thessa- 

 ly, far north of Beotia, and in a mountainous country^ 

 vines and olives came to perfection, according to th^ 

 testimony of the same writer, in the same chapter. Cold 

 and heat are comparative ; and the degrees of them are 

 not to be known from general assertions. Homer speaks 

 of the tvild fig-tree before the walls of Troy, a degree 

 and a, half of latitude north of Beotia.... //?«</, B, 6. v, 

 433. And other ancient authors speak of the fig-tree, 

 vines and olives growing in Macedonia, two degrees still 

 further north.... ./^warc/z. ch. Ixv. Pliny informs us that 

 figs were produced at Mount Ida, near the site ofTroy.... 

 Nat. Hist. lib. 15. ca. xviii. Theophrast informs us that 

 figs grew in great abundance in Pontus, on the south 

 shore of the Euxine....Z^5^. Plant, lib. iv. 6. And Xen- 

 ophon found, on his retreat with the ten thousand, figs 

 and vines in abundance at Calpc, on the same shore, 

 about 870 stadiums ir:ovi\^j7.2iYiti\\m.....See his account, b* 

 vi. Pliny, in the book just cited, gives an account of a 

 method of raising figs in Moesia, the modern Bulgaria, 

 in the 44th degree of north latitude, which was effected 

 by covering small trees in winter with compost. These 

 facts, and numberless others, "s^'hich I have found in au- 

 thors, furnish the most accurate test of the real state of 

 the climate in Greece, Asia Minor, and the neighboring 

 countries. 



Joseph, in the fifth book of his Antiquities, ch. v. re- 

 lates that in the battle between the Canaanites and the 

 Israelites, under Barak and Dcborali, the Canaanites 

 ^vere exceedingly annoyed by a storm of rain and hail, 

 which blew in their faces, and rendered their bows and 

 slings almost useless ; while the cold benumbed their 

 fingers, so that they could not use their swords. This 

 fact would seem to confirm the common opinion that, an- 

 ciently, Palestine was far colder than at present. But 

 we must not be misled by single facts. In the very next 

 chapter, the historian, in relating the sufferings of his 



H 



