190 FROM CONSTANTINOPLE, 
Fachi — Beymilico — Carnabat — Dobralle — River 
Kamtchisu — Chaligh Kavack — Neiv -discovered Plants — 
Dragoelu — Shumla — Festival of the Courban Bairam. 
CHAP. Yl^E had a fall of snow during this winter at 
'■ ,. / Constantinople, but it was very transitory. The 
tur"ofThe temperature of the season will be best observed 
Slsom by attending to the diary of observations upon 
the thermometer, at the end of this volume. The 
mercury fell only once so low as thirty-seven 
degrees of Fahrenheit : this happened upon the 
eighteenth of March. Its average altitude, 
during the three colder months, might be 
reckoned as about equal to fifty degrees; being 
sometimes as high as sixty-four. But accounts 
are given by authors of a diminution in the 
temperature of this climate, during certain win- 
ters, that are quite inconsistent with the notions 
we entertain of countries situate in the forty-Jirst 
parallel of latitude, which is the latitude of 
Constantinople^. In the year 756, there happened 
so severe a frost, that all the northern coast of the 
Euocine was covered with ice, reaching one 
hundred miles from the shore, and extending to 
the depth of forty -five feet. Afterwards, snow 
fell upon the ice, which, by raising the surface 
(1) The latitude of St. Sophia is 41°. l'. 2". See Kavfer's Topogra- 
phical Chart, prefixed to this Volume. 
