were indeed 30 milch camels with their colts, and 20 fhe-affes, of which 10 had foals. But it should seem, from a paffage of Sir John Chardin, that camels generally couple about June, and continue in a pregnant state II or 12 months 2; confequently these colts must have been 9 or 10 months old at this time, and therefore very able to travel much more briskly than the lambs and kids of that spring. The 10 foals of the 20 fhe-affes were chofen, I fhould apprehend, with like caution, though I have not fuch determinate evidence to produce as to their pro bable age.

OBSERVATION XII.

As the weather and the appearances in the vegetable world, in the fpring, have been fhewn to be much alike in Barbary, at Aleppo, and in the Holy-Land; it may be agreeable here to add, that there is the fame refemblance as to the productions of autumą, and confequently, that we may fafely apply what may be faid of one place to either

of the other.

I have fhewn it as to the weather of the autumn in fome preceding obfervations, let now proceed to the vegetable produc

us

tions.

Tome 2. p. 142, 143.

* P. 28.

Dr.

Dr. Ruffell tells us the cotton is not gathered about Aleppo 'till October, O. S, p. 18.

And in 1774, when a late traveller vifited Judæa, the cotton at Acra, where he confidered himfelf as entering into the precincts of the Holy-Land, was chiefly gathered in the 23d October, at which time he arrived there.

Rauwolff found that at the time when the cotton was tender and woolly, near the Euphrates, about the middle of October, the corn, which grew very high, was full ripe, and fit to be cut down '. The fame traveller found then Indian millet in the fame place juft fit to be cut down, and that in fome places they had it in already. This corn then and millet were fomewhat fooner ripe than the cotton.

The fame writer tells us, that the fields about Rama were very fruitful, well tilled, and fown with corn, cotton and Indian millet; and that it was harvesttime when he was there (which was the middle of September) a great officer being there to gather a great quantity. of corn to fend to Joppa, to go by fea to Conftantinople, where there was then a fcarcity. But, according to him,

Ray's Travels, p. 158. 2 P. 161.
4 P. 227.

3 P. 229.

all

all the corn' was not in by the end of the month 2.

When Rauwolff found the Turkey wheat and Indian millet fully ripe, on the bank of the Euphrates, he found the Indian mufk-melon ftill continued in feafon, and in great quantities 3. In like manner he found them growing in the Holy-Land, in great quantities, very pleasant, and well tafted, chiefly thofe that were red within, when the Turkey corn and Indian millet began to be ripe there *.

Ruffell tells us, that the greater part of the

trees about Aleppo, retain their leaves 'till the middle of November, Q. S,

P. 14.

And in 1774, fome of the fruit-trees had begun to drop their leaves when that late vifitor of the Holy-Land left Joppa, which must have been towards the clofe of November, as he left not Jerufalem 'till the 19th of that month, N. S, and arrived in Ægypt on the 2d December; but the olive and fig-trees were not then on the decline.

Which corn appears to have been the Indian or Turkey wheat, our kind of wheat being reaped in the Eaft much fooner.

2 P. 319.

3 P. 161.

4 229.

OBSER

OBSERVATION XIII.

When Trachonitis was a part of the Jewish country, as it appears to have been in the time of our Lord', (if it did not come within the original bounds of the half tribe of Manaffeh,) it must have been a very different country from the South of Judæa in point of heat. But this is no more than happens to other countries, and only makes the multiplication of meteorological obfervations and œconomical calendars neceffary, according to the nature of the different diftricts, in order to have a juft idea of the whole.

Thus de la Vallé, having paffed over Jordan, at that cailed Jacob's Bridge, and travelling in the country of Trachonitis, which was very fertile and well cultivated, he found that "Mount Libanus was not "far off, and that from thence came a "wind fo vehement and fo cold, with fuch "an abundance of fnow, that though we "were in a manner buried in our quilted "coverlets, yet it was fenfibly felt all night, "and was very disagreeable '.

When I add, that it appears that this difagreeable night was that between the 29th

Luke 3. 1. "Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and "his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea, and of the region "of Trachonitis."

2 P. 121, 122.

and

and 30th of April, 1616, we fhall be not a little furprized. The fnow that fell in the night, between the 4th and 5th of May, O. S, 1740, or the 15th and 16th of May, N. S, and fome remains of which I faw four days after, and which fo much astonifhed us in Suffolk, was not fo far into the fpring with us, as the night between the 29th and 30th of April into a Syrian spring, which I have elsewhere fhewn is, in common, fix, if not eight weeks earlier than

our's.

СНА Р. II.

Concerning their living in Tents.

OBSERVATION XIV.

IR J. Chardin tells us, that the late

S'king of Perfia caufed a tent to be made,

which coft two millions. They called it the Houfe of Gold, becaufe gold glittered every where about it. He adds, that there was an infcription wrought upon the cornice of the antechamber, which gave it the appellation of the throne

French money we are to fuppofe.