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DESCRIPTIONS OF EGYPT. 
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 
beginning of February, when the fruit trees be- 
gin to blossom, and the atmosphere becomes gra- 
dually warmer. The period of summer is from 
the middle of June to the end of September ; 
during the greatest part of which time the heat 
continues regular, the fields when not watered 
are parched like a desert, and no green leaf is 
seen, which is not produced by irrigation. Au- 
tumn, which may be considered as a continuation 
of summer, commences about the middle of Oc- 
tober, when the intense heat begins to decrease, 
the leaves fall, and the Nile retires to its channel ; 
and it continues to the end of November, when 
the country resembles a beautiful meadow, diver- 
sified 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 regu- 
larity of the seasons, and of all the changes which 
a climate presents, these atmospherical pheno- 
mena were first investigated with philosophical 
accuracy. But though the observations of the 
ancient philosophers of Thebes and Memphis, 
engraved on immense masses of granite, have de- 
