188 clarke's travels. 
spect Cyprus differs entirely ■ Egypt. and from all the 
neighbouring'- shores. Its ports are more sultry than any other 
io. the Levant, Salines, a ad the towns situated on the eastern 
and north eastern 'coasts of the -island, .-.are subject io such 
dangerous temperature, that, in the* xtionths of June and July, 
persons fall victims to the afflicting malady called a sun stroke, 
or coup de soleil , if they v enture out at noon without the pre¬ 
caution-of carrying an umbrella. The inhabitants, especially 
’of the lower order, wrap their heads as if exposed to the rigour 
of a severe winter; being always covered' with a turban, over 
which, io their journeys, they place a thick shawl, many times 
folded. The great heat experienced upon the eastern coasts 
of Cyprus is owing to two causes: to the situation of the 
island w ith respect to the Syrian, Arabian, and Lybian deserts ; 
and to its mountainous nature, preventing the cooler winds, 
the west and northwest, from the low shores to the east and 
northeast. 
We had scarce entered the bay, when we observed, to 
the northeast, a lurid haze, as if the atmosphere was on fire; 
and suddenly, from that quarter, a hurricane took us, that laid 
the Ceres upon her beam ends. At the time of this squall I en¬ 
deavoured to ascertain the temperature of the blast. We found 
it so scorching that the skin instantly peeled hom our lips; a 
tendency to sneeze was excited, accompanied with great pain 
in the eyes, and chapping of the hands and face. The metal¬ 
lic scale of the thermometer, suspended in a port hole to wind¬ 
ward, was kepi in a horizontal position by the violence of the 
gale; arid the mercury, exposed to its full current, rose six de¬ 
grees-of Fahrenheit in two minutes, from eighty to eighty six; a 
singular consequence of northeast wind to Englishmen, accustom¬ 
ed to consider this as the coldest to which their island is 'exposed; 
All the coast of Cyprus, from Salines to Famagosta , ancientry 
Sal amis, is liable to hot winds, from almost every point of the 
compass; from the northeast; from the east; from the south¬ 
east; from the south ; and southwest. The northeast coming 
from the parched deserts of Curdistan; the east frem the 
sands of Palmyra; the southeast from the great desert of 
Arabia; and the south and southwest from Egypt and Ljbia. 
From the west, northwest, and north, the inhabitants are shut 
by high mountains, lying open to the beams of a scorching sun, 
reflecting from a soil so white, that the glare is often sufficient 
to cause temporary blindness, without even the prospect of a 
single tree, beneath which one might hope for shade. In the 
