€ On the supposed Change 



several feet. The moiuitains from Aleppo to Jerusalem-, 

 are covered with snow every winter ; and when the snow 

 melts, the Jordan overflows its banks. This happens in 

 March ; but on some of the highest hills, as mount Leb- 

 anon and Akkar, the snow is seen, till the middle of 

 summer. This was the fact in 1784, when Volney vis- 

 ited that country. See his Travels, from v^^hich these 

 facts are extracted. This author further observes, that 

 on the east of the mountains, the cold is more rigorous 

 than on the sea coast ; and at Aleppo, Antioch and Da- 

 mascus, are several weeks of frost and snow every win- 

 ter. The inhabitants of the mountains leave their hab- 

 itations, which are buried in snow, in winter, and pass 

 the season at Tripoli, on the sea coast.* 



The principal part of Judea, or the Holy Land, lies 

 on the east side of the mountains, and experiences snow, 

 frost and ice every winter. What shall we say then to 

 the assertion of Dr. Williams, that in Palestine, "snow 

 and ice are never seen" in modern days. 



In Syria and Palestine, wheat and barley are so^^ti in 

 autumn, about the last week in October ; the time of 

 the autumnal rains. Harvest, in the plains, is in April 

 and May. On the mountains, it is in June and July. 

 Spring crops are planted in March and April. f 



Common winters therefore in Judea are mild in the 

 plains, but cold on the hills. That country however is 

 subject, like others, to severe vrinters, which prove de- 

 structive to men and vegetables. The poverty of the 

 great body of the people, and the mildness of ordinary 



* " Will a man leave the snow of Lebanon'\...Zev, xviii. 14. Shaw, 

 in his Travels, p. 362, says, mount Libanus, in winter, is covered 

 with snow — and p. 363, that snow at Jerusalem in February, causes 

 great rejoicings. He mentions that snow fell at Cairo, Jan. 10, 1639. 



t If the byssus of the ancient Egyptians was really cotton, as the 

 commentators on Herodotus assert, then cotton must have been 

 the produce of Egypt, from the earliest times, as the bandages in 

 which mummies were wrapped, consisted of that article*.. .5c/oe. 

 Herod. Euterfxe. 86. JSTote. 



When Ezra returned from the captivity, and set about reforming 

 the abuses of marriage among the Jews, he assembled the men of 

 Judah and Benjamin, on the 20th day of the 9th month, and it was a 

 time of great rain. This was about the 10th or 12th of Dec....iiz.x.9. 



