DESCRIPTIONS OP EGYPT. 
Ill 
These winds, in spring so destructive by their heat, 
are in winter, from the beginning of December to 
the end of January, distinguished only by their in- 
tense and penetrating cold. While the sun is in 
the southern tropic, his rays fall more obliquely on 
the desert, and the current of air which descends 
on Egypt is tempered by the snowy mountains of 
Abyssinia. Sudden or violent squalls are unfre- 
quent on the coast, from the regularity of the tem- 
perature, which prevents any rapid rarefaction or 
condensation. The northerly and westerly winds, 
denominated by the Arabs the fathers of rain, 
notwithstanding the humidity with which they are 
impregnated, seldom or never produce copious rains 
in Egypt. When this phenomenon occurs, it con- 
tinues only a few minutes, and even then the rain 
seems to be obstructed in its descent. In the 
Delta it occurs only in winter, and above Cairo it 
is considered as a species of miracle. The pheno- 
mena of thunder and lightning are still more un- 
common than rain, and so far divested of their ter- 
rific qualities, that the Egyptians are unable to as- 
sociate with them the idea of destructive force, or 
to comprehend how they are ever productive of in- 
jury. Slight showers of hail, descending from the 
hills of Syria, and passing along the plains of Pa- 
lestine, sometimes reach the confines of Egypt. 
The production of ice is so extremely uncommon, 
that once, when it appeared in Lower Egypt, the 
