It was exchanged in the lower valleys of the great streams for a damp close heat, intolerably stifling and oppressive.

The upper valleys of these streams and the plains into which they expanded were at once less hot and less moist, but were subject to violent storms, owing to the near vicinity of the mountains.

In the mountains themselves, in Armenia and Zagros, and again in the Elburz, the climate was of a more rigorous character--intensely cold in winter, but pleasant in the summer time.

[PLATE XXVII., Fig.

3.] Asia Minor enjoyed generally a warmer climate than the high mountain regions; and its western and southern coasts, being fanned by fresh breezes from the sea, or from the hills of the interior, and cooled during the whole of the summer by frequent showers, were especially charming.