Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 18.djvu/653

CLIMATE.] have had every cause to be grateful for a delightful tem perature. Shfraz, though some 4750 feet above sea-level, and in respect of climate so belauded by the native poets, can be hot enough in the summer, and is subject to drought, scarcity, and other contingencies of Persia. Mounsey considers May the finest month, when the plains are fresh and green, the gardens filled with roses and nightingales, the cherries ripe, and the green almonds in vogue. Binning, writing from Ispahan on the 1st of July, had not seen the thermometer higher than 87 in his room ; in the morning at sunrise it was generally 70. Sleeping, as others, on the roof of his house, he described the air to he very dry, and the nights clear and bright, the little dew which fell being so pure as to be innocuous. He expected hotter weather towards the close of the month, but a long autumn would make amends for a little heat. Many years before Binning, Mr Jukes had recorded that, from the average of 27 days, including the end of May and beginning of June, the thermometer at Ispahan at sunrise was 56, at 2 P.M. 87, and at 9 P.M. 67. Sir John Malcolm remarked that this city appeared to be placed "in the happiest temperature " that Persia could boast. Lady Shell, whose experi ences were chiefly gained in Tehran, limits the "glorious weather of Persia" from the "Nau-ruz" or New Year (21st March) to the middle of May ; but most persons would perhaps prefer the autumn in the highlands of the north, as in many other parts of the country. September and October are beautiful months. The blue sky, with its tempering haze, as it were a veil of reflected snow gathered from the higher peaks and ridges of continuous mountain chains, is too exquisite a sight to be readily forgotten ; and the enjoyment is all the more complete when the temperature is that of October. To those who come from India direct, or to whom an Indian heat is habitual, the change to Persia is most grateful. In the late spring, fashion moves out a few miles from Tehran to the "yalaks of Shamiran," or cooler residences near the hills, and summer rendezvous of the various foreign legations, returning in the late autumn to the precincts of the capital, which, it may be noted, have been considerably extended of late years, and are de signed for yet further extension. On the 5th of June 1871 the thermometer in Tehran was at 1 A.M. at 62 and at 2 P.M. at 75. On the two following days it was at 6 A.M. at 62 and at 2 P.M. at 80. In February the traveller across the plains of Sulimaniya, or approaching the capital from Tabriz, will sometimes experience the most bitter cold. Bushahr and the Caspian provinces have already been mentioned, but the heat of the former place is fairly shared by other ports on the seaboard to the south, among them, Lingah, Bandar- Abbas, and Charbar. When the Sistan mission was at Bandar- Abbas in December 1871, malarious fevers were prevalent, and enlarged spleen was a common complaint. The average maximum temperature was then only 72 and the minimum 52 ; but the summer and winter heats are in this locality extreme. More than a month later the officers of the mission slept out on the desert plains south of Sistan, and woke in the morning to find their beds and bedding covered with frost and icicles. it te With reference to the Caspian provinces the consular report (; - to the English Foreign Office for 1881 is available. Major " Lovett, remarking that the "minimum isotherms passing through the north of continental Europe are deflected con siderably to the south on approaching the longitude of the Caspian," calls attention to the fact that, while during the winter the northern part of that large inland sea is frozen over, farther south, at only 10 distance, the climate of Astrabad (if there be no wind from the north and the sun shine) is like that of Madeira at the same time of the year. Though the preceding cold season had been un usually severe, and heavy snow had fallen at Bakii and lower down, the lowest reading of the thermometer was 25 Fahr., and the maximum during the months of December, January, and February was 62 J in the shade. The following extract from the report is interesting, as it bears on the products as well as the climate of the north of Persia. " It must be remembered, in connexion with the influence the Caspian Sea has on the climate of its shores, that its surface is 84 feet below the level of the ocean ; and, conseqxiently, the superin cumbent strata of air being denser than, cseteris paribus, elsewhere, it is also more capable of absorbing solar heat and moisture than the air at ocean-level. This partly accounts for the mildness as well as for the dampness of the climate. I cannot give the amount of rainfall, having no gauge ; but it rained, during the 245 days of recorded observations, forty-five times, and the sky was overcast seventy times besides. This tolerable proportion of rain and cloud is doubtless due to the action of cold northerly blasts impinging on the warm and moisture-laden air shrouding the slopes of the Elburz, and hemmed in, as it were, between them and the icy northern wind. Currents thereupon are set up from the central region of the southern shores of the Caspian that blow to the east and to the west. The central region is a zone of much greater rainfall than the districts more remote. The westerly current, passing over this province, has its fertilizing influence expended on reaching the Goklan hills, 100 miles from the sea. The breadth and intensity of this moisture- bearing current is well marked by the gradually proportionate dcnseness of the vegetation extending from the sands of the Atrak steppe to the mountain summits. The action of these damp winds is distinctly traceable on all portions of the mountain-range exposed to the sea-breeze, even by the channels afforded by the valleys of the rivers that debouch on to the Caspian. Such are densely clothed with forest of a type similar to that found in southerly temperate climates. The flora is distinctly not tropical. In addition to the trees already mentioned, I should add that wild hops and plums are to be found. In the spring the hillsides are covered with thick excellent pasture. In the gardens and orchards of Astrabad are to be found vines, fig trees, orange trees, pome granate, and lemon trees, and the vegetables chiefly cultivated are melons, pumpkins, marrows, lettuce, aubergines, &c., that form at their seasons food-staples for the people. Tobacco, used for manu facturing cigarettes, is also grown here on a small scale. " The Turkman steppe lying north of Astrabad is, as far as the Atrak, a prairie of exceeding fertility. Wheat reproduces itself more than a hundredfold without artificial irrigation or any trouble beyond sowing." Soil and Products. Where there is irrigation the pro ductiveness of the soil in Persia is remarkable, but un fortunately there is too much truth in the notion that two-thirds of the tablelands of the country are sterile from want of water. The desert is the rule, fertility the exception, and generally in the form of an oasis. Yet Products, wheat, barley, and other cereals are grown in great per fection ; there are the sugar-cane and rice also, especially in Mazandaran, where the soil is favourable and water pro curable ; opium, tobacco, and cotton, madder roots, henna, and other dyes, are as well-known exports as the woollen goods of Persia ; and the first may become of importance in its bearing upon the Indian market. 1 In Gilan, famous for its mulberry plantations, silk has been one of the most valuable of products. Yazd and Mazandaran contribute also the same material, but of late years the worm has comparatively failed to do its office, and disease has de stroyed crop after crop. According to Mr Secretary Dickson s report of August 1882 the peasants of Gilan had turned their attention to the cultivation of rice, and, though a marked improvement was perceptible in the silk produce, they were not disposed to revert to this branch of culture on the former large scale. " Silk, once the staple produce of Persia, upon which it mainly depended for repaying the cost of its imports, is not likely," he fears, " to resume its former importance. In its nourishing days about 20,000 bales, or 1,400,000 Ib, representing a value of 700,000, were annually exported. Xow not more than a fourth of that quantity can be obtained." Rice was found to suit the cultivators better ; it gave them less trouble and pro vided them with an article of daily food. The production of silk, on the other hand, profited the richer landed pro prietors, and subjected the cultivators to oppression. Consul Beresford Lovett, in his report before quoted, says that at Astrabad the soil is so productive, and subsistence is practicable on so small a piece of land and with so little labour and expense, that many very poor emigrants come 1 In 1881 the crop at Karmanshah yielded about 13,500 ft ; Ispa han claimed to have produced 3000 chests ; in Khurasan it was re ported that the cultivation of the poppy had increased tenfold, and so extended was the area that the opium realized was estimated at an eighth of the whole produce of the province, the yield for 1882 being reckoned at 33,750 ft. At Yazd it was largely cultivated, at Tehran to a small extent only.