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be edeemed much drier than in other years. The 
Aleppo river has been very low all the dimmer; and 
its bed, from the fird to the fecond mill, is, I be- 
lieve, even now dill without water. This pheno- 
menon I, at fir ft, thought remarkable j but have 
been informed, that the fcarcity of water complained 
of, during ad the fummer, was cccafioned by driving 
the river into fome rice-grounds lately formed to- 
wards Antab. 
On the morning of the loth of June, a flight 
fhock of an earthquake was felt here, and, as ufual, 
foon forgot } having, fo far as we know, been felt in 
no other place, in any degree of feverity. 
October the 30th, about four in the morning,, we 
had a pretty fevere fhock (indeed the mod violent I 
had ever felt), which laded fomewhat more than a 
minute, but did no damage in Aleppo. In about 
ten minutes after this did, there was a fecond diock ; 
but the tremulous motion was lefs violent, and did 
not lad above fifteen feconds. It had rained a little 
in the preceding evening ; and when the earthquake 
happened, the wed wind blew frefh, the fky was 
cloudy, and it lightened. 
This earthquake occafioned little alarm amongd 
the natives, and even with the Europeans was the 
topic only for a day. But the fubjedt was foon re- 
vived, by letters from Damafcus, .where the fame 
fhock felt by us at Aleppo, and feveral other fuccef- 
frve ones, had done confiderable damage. F:om 
this time, we had daily accounts of earthquakes from 
Damafcus, Tripoly, Seidon, Acri, and all along the 
coad of Syria ; but fo exaggerated in fome circum- 
ftances, and fo inaccurate in all, that we only knew 
in 
