Note.—In this and all following tables, F. stands for degrees Fahrenheit; C. for degrees Centigrade; E.F., elevation above the sea in feet; E.M., the same expressed in metres; Ins., inches, English; Mm., millimetres.

The character of the climate of the capital, which may be considered typical of the coast health resorts, may be gathered from the following table:—

From this it may be seen that Algiers possesses a very desirable climate all the year round, though a trifle too rainy in late autumn.

The figures are those of the year 1901, as the French Government does not appear to have furnished the library with mean normal results.

Malta.

—Owing to the large number of our officers and men serving there, the climate of this small island, which is delightful during the winter, is of interest to many, but it perhaps barely merits the name of a hot climate. While resembling in some respects the climate of southern Italy, it approximates more closely to that of northern Africa, the rainfall being very scanty.

The following are the principal climatic data:—

During the summer, periods of hot dry winds blowing from the burning African deserts are somewhat trying, but these do not, as a rule, last for many consecutive days, and on the whole the climate is not unhealthy.

A peculiar infective fever, commonly known as “Malta fever,” but also met with in other parts of the Mediterranean littoral, as well as in India, and very troublesome on account of its obstinate tendency to relapse, is the most serious drawback in the matter of disease, but under improving modern sanitation the disease is yearly becoming less common.

The climate of the Syrian coast is very similar, but somewhat warmer, with a heavier rainfall; so also is that of Algiers and the North African coast generally, there being, however, mostly a wider range between the hottest and coldest months than in the purely insular Malta. Malaria, dysentery, and other tropical diseases are not uncommon, but seldom either widely spread or particularly virulent. As we leave the coast, the range of temperature, both annual and diurnal, rapidly increases, and is especially marked in the highlands of Asia Minor, as, for example, at Erzerum, where the temperature in January falls as low as -20° F. (-29° C.), and in summer may exceed 90° F. (31° C.).

Cyprus.

—Long. 32° 20′ to 34° 35′ E; lat. 34° 33′ to 35° 41′ N. Our administrative connection with this island, and the circumstance that it has of late been strongly recommended as a fairly stimulating winter health resort for delicate people, and especially for cases of chest diseases and others, make it desirable to include an account of it within our list.

The following are the principal climatic data:—

The climate is somewhat cooler in summer on the coast, and the rainfall slightly higher, but with a smaller number of rainy days.

The island is mountainous; a great mass of hills occupying the greater part of the southern half, and reaching an elevation of over 6,400 feet at Mount Troödos, where a summer sanatorium has been established. A lower range of hills fringes the entire northern shore, and between the two is a central plain, on the highest part of which, at an elevation of about 500 feet, is situated the capital, Nikosia. These hills shelter the central plain from the bitter winds of the Taurus range in Asia Minor during winter, but, on the other hand, cut off the cooling sea-breezes in summer. For eight months in the year the rainfall is inappreciable, and the summer appearance of the plains arid in the extreme, but the advent of the winter rains in October changes the scene to one of the greatest fertility. The hill country, on the other hand, is generally well-clothed with pine-forests, and enjoys, during the summer, a very pleasant climate. At Nikosia the mean temperature of the year is 67·2°, the extreme maximum being 108°, and the minimum 28°, showing the large range of 80°.

At the hill station on Mount Troödos, at an elevation of 5,000 feet, the excessive heat of the plains is entirely avoided. The season there opens in June and closes in October, the temperature never exceeding 85° F. in 1901. The following table shows the great gain in coolness:—

During the greater part of the year the wind is usually from the north-west, but during the coldest part of the winter is usually from the east. It will be noticed that the general characters of the climate are rather those of a Continental than of an insular situation. The air is almost always highly charged with electricity, and there is comparatively little malaria or other specially tropical diseases.

Egypt.

—The climate of this country is, even from the all-the-year-round point of view, one of the finest in the world, and hence its well-deserved popularity as a winter health resort. Apart from the “Khamseen,” which those used to Indian hot weather might esteem a change for the better, its one drawback is what may be termed the co-efficient of rapacity of its hotel-keepers; as for the casual visitor, it is certainly an expensive country.

With endless sights of antiquarian interest, and a gay cosmopolitan society, there is little chance of boredom for either the studious or frivolous, and with the possible exception of California, no climate affords a better combination of warmth and sunlight, with a clean, stimulating atmosphere. It owes this to its peculiar geographical characters, for although it includes on the map a large area, the actually inhabited portion consists of only a narrow strip, a few miles wide, on either side of the Nile; as all the land beyond the reach of the annual overflow of the river, which is at its maximum in September, and lowest in June, is absolute desert, the intense dryness of which is necessarily fatal to all forms of vegetable life, including the organic germs of disease. On this account, even in the middle of the cultivated strip, the air has never been fouled by passing over any considerable extent of habitations and cultivation, with their inevitable emanations, but must always come, almost fresh and germ-free, from the illimitable expanse of sand and rock that immediately succeeds the narrow band of river alluvium.

Dr. Dalrymple, one of the earliest writers on the subject, remarks, “It is scarcely possible to imagine anything more invigorating and life-giving than the air of the desert; there is a dryness and elasticity about it like nothing else, and the sense of renovation when breathing it is, to the languid invalid, like a new lease of life.”

Both he and Dr. Sandwith, from whose excellent “Egypt as a Winter Resort” the following tables are taken, seem agreed as to its suitability for all cases of chest disease that have not gone too far to be amendable to climatic treatment of any sort, and Dr. Sandwith finds it also suitable for such cases of heart and kidney affections as are unfavourably affected by cold; while the sulphur baths of Helouan have been found remarkably useful in the chronic forms of rheumatoid arthritis, rheumatism and gout.

The main characteristic of the climate is its intense dryness. Even on the coast at Alexandria, the rainfall is but trifling, and above Cairo it may almost be neglected; but in spite of this even during the hottest months the climate is quite bearable. “Northern rooms, if closed in good time, need never exceed 83° in the hot weather, or fall below 52° in the cold season, provided the sun-warmed air be allowed free entry.” The prevailing wind is a gentle breeze from the north, but both at Cairo and Alexandria, during the fifty days about Easter-time, a peculiar dust-laden wind, highly charged with electricity, and known as “the Khamseen,” blows at intervals. It is very disagreeable while it lasts, the dust sometimes obscuring the sun almost as completely as a London fog, but it rarely persists more than two days at a time, and does not usually occur more than three or four times in a season. The following tables will give a good general idea of the climate:—

Assouan

, 133 miles further up the Nile, has a winter climate which is said to be almost 5° F. higher than Luxor, and to be freer from dust-storms. The building of the great dam and the large artificial lake which has been thus formed can hardly fail to modify the climate, so that it is hardly worth while reproducing Dr. Sandwith’s table.

For the rest, the whole of Egypt up to this latitude may be said to be very healthy for Europeans, there being much less malaria than one would be inclined to expect as a consequence of the annual overflowing of the Nile; a circumstance which may, I believe, be attributed to the generally neat character of the cultivation, and the care with which every square yard of cultivable soil is utilised. Internal worms are, however, extremely common amongst the natives, but care in the matter of drinking water will render the risk run by the European very trifling.

Another terribly common disease amongst the natives is granular ophthalmia, a disease easily acquired by contact, or indirectly through the agency of flies, but Dr. Sandwith finds that it is extremely rarely taken by Europeans, though soreness of the eyes from dust and glare is not uncommon, for which he recommends the daily use of a little boracic solution as a toilet wash. It might, however, be perhaps advisable to protect young children by means of a veil when abroad, especially when entrusted to the care of a native attendant.

The Remainder of the African Continent.

—Our knowledge of African meteorology is necessarily in its infancy, and it is only possible to furnish a few tables of widely distant parts of this immense area, which may give some idea of its climatic characters. The whole of the northern part of the continent is extremely dry, much of it being quite rainless, especially towards its eastern side. Following on this is the equatorial belt, a great portion of which is barely, if at all, explored, but which seems to usually present the general characters of such latitudes and to be usually blessed with an ample rainfall across the entire width of the continent. Southward of the equatorial zone we again meet with immense dry and desert areas, such as the Karoo, but here it is the western side that is the more arid, none of the south-eastern coast being in any sense rainless.

Malaria is extremely rife in almost all parts of the huge peninsula, and in addition to this we have in “Blackwater fever” and sleeping sickness, diseases which seem to be at present its own peculiar privilege, though, fortunately, yellow fever is not as yet included in its list of dangers. The low-lying country along the coast and of the great rivers is notoriously unhealthy, such as the Bight of Benin, where, according to the sailor’s proverb,