I was more surprised at the salubrity of this town, from knowing the
great extremes of heat and cold to which it is subject, having obtained
from a friend who had resided there during the whole of the preceding
year, a most accurate diary of the various changes of its climate.
From this it appeared, that on the twentieth of October there was a
heavy fall of snow, which did not however remain long upon the ground;
the weather again became mild, and there was no excessive cold until
the middle of December, from which period till the end of January
Fahrenheit's thermometer, when exposed to the air at night, never rose
above zero, and in the house, at mid-day, it was seldom above 18°.
January was by far the coldest month; during it, the water is described
as becoming almost instantaneously solid in the tumblers upon the
dining table, and the ink often freezing in the inkstand, although the
table was quite close to the fire. For at least a fortnight not an egg
was to be had, all being split by the cold. Some bottles of wine froze,
although covered with straw, and many of the copper ewers were split by
the expansion of the water when frozen in them.
According to this diary, the weather became comparatively mild towards
the end of February; but it appears that here, as in England, a
"Lingering winter chills the lap of May;"
for on the first of that month there was a heavy fall of snow, with
such cold, that all the promise of the spring was destroyed. Of the
heat that ensued, and the sudden and great changes to which Tebreez is
subject, we had abundant proof; in the month of June, the range of the
thermometer being usually, within the twenty-four hours, from 56° to
94°, a difference of 38°.
The extreme heat of summer causes most of the houses in Tebreez to be
built so as to admit the air during that season; but the architects of
Persia fall far short of their brethren in Europe, in forming plans by
which the cool air can be admitted in summer and excluded in winter.
This partly accounts for the effects of the cold to which I have
alluded; but the city of Tebreez, and many other parts of Aderbejan,
and still more of the neighbouring province of Kûrdistan, though
nowhere beyond the fortieth degree of latitude, are, from their great
elevation, subject to extreme cold. In the latter country I found, on
the morning of the seventeenth of August, ice half an inch thick on a
basin of water standing in my tent.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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