DESCRIPTIONS OF EGYPT. 
115 
If the ground has been only partially inundated, 
recourse is had to the process of irrigation, by 
which many species of vegetables may be raised, 
even in the dry season. Winter, or the cold sea- 
son, extends from the end of November to the end 
of January. Spring commences about the begin- 
ning of February, when the fruit trees begin to 
blossom, and the atmosphere becomes gradually 
warmer. The period of summer is from the mid- 
dle of June to the end of September ; during the 
greatest part of which time the heat continues re- 
gular, the fields^are parched like a desert, and no 
green leaf is seen which is not produced by artifi- 
cial irrigation. Autumn, which may be considered 
as a continuation of summer, commences about the 
middle of October, when the intense heat begins 
to decrease, the leaves fall, and the Nile retires to 
its channel ; and it continues to the end of No- 
vember, when the country resembles a beautiful 
meadow, diversified with lively colours. 
Such are the principal phenomena which cha- 
racterize the climate of Egypt, a country in the 
very atmosphere of which nature seems to have 
adopted new and singular arrangements. In this 
country, distinguished by an uncommon regularity 
of the seasons, and of all the changes which a cli- 
mate presents, these atmospherical phenomena were 
first investigated with philosophical accuracy. But 
though the observations of the ancient philosophers 
