192 APPENDIX. 



L. 



Extract from a letter from Rev. J. F. Lanneau : — 



" There are, however, some general remarks which my long residence in Syria 

 and the Holy Land enables me to make concerning the direction of the wind, and 

 other topics alluded to in your letter, and which may be of some interest to you. 



" The wliole-of Palestine is intersected by a chain of hills, or small mountains, 

 rising to an elevation of nearly three thousand feet, and extending north and south 

 nearly midway between the Mediterranean and the Jordan. On the sea-coast, the 

 wind generall}' blows ' off the land,' or from the east and south-east during the 

 night, and follows the sun, as the day advances, toward the south, south-west, and 

 west, and perhaps one-third of the time continuing on to north and north-west, 

 increasing toward sunset, and, shortly after, dying away to a calm, which lasts 

 until about midnight, wdien the land-breeze again commences. At Jerusalem, how- 

 ever, and in the hill country of Judea, the direction of the winds is almost always 

 from the north-west during winter and summer, except when the Shileak, the 

 Arabic term for the wind commonly known elsewhere as the Sirocco, or east wind, 

 blows from the desert. So uniformly prevalent is the north-wester, that the olive 

 trees in the interior, situated so as to feel its constant influence, are inclined 

 toward the south-east, and their branches checked in their opposite direction by 

 its force, so that, in some cases, three-fourths, or more of them, are on that side, 



thus : ^}\^ • This is very strikingly noticed immediately around Jerusalem. 



" And this leads me to an obvious answer to one of your questions, viz. : ' Are 

 there any local influences that would affect the direction of the wind ?' I have 

 always thought the position of Jerusalem, and that whole region, with the immense 

 evaporation from the Dead Sea, and the Arabian desert to the south-east of it, 

 must be the physical cause of the north-west direction of the wind the greater 

 portion of the 3'ear, while the deep gorge in the mountains, extending all the way 

 from the valley of Jehoshaphat and Hinnom to the Dead Sea, occasions a stronger 

 current over the Holy City and the Mount of Olives. The Arabs have a saying, 

 that Jerusalem is the most windy place in the world, the centre of the earth, and 

 thus attracting all the wind there, &c. During the winter, the south-west wind on 

 the coast, and the north-west wind in the interior, generally accompany a rain, 

 though occasionally there is a shower from the south-east. A north wind on the 

 sea-coast always drives away rain, but it is generally a very chilly and vnicom- 

 fortable one, and is considered by the natives as unwholesome. The rainy season 

 commences about the 1st or 15th of October, and continues until the middle of 

 April. Sometimes a few showers fall in September and May." 



M. 



For an extract from a letter of the Rev. Justin Perkins, Ooroomiah, Persia, 

 accompanying his observations at that place, see pages 104 and 105. 

 In regard to the wands at Tabreez, he remarks as follows : — 

 " At Tabreez, across the lake, which is about seventy miles distant from us (in 



