Dew appears but little in summer at least so it was during our stay. Thunder-storms occurred occasionally, preceded by whirlwinds, which carried columns of dust through the camp, and filled every corner with their burden. At times, tents and huts went down before the suddenness of the assault, stifling and crushing the helpless sufferers who lay within them. Autumn again was charming. The coolness of the mornings and evenings, the tempered heat of the mid-day sun, and the genial showers, rendered the climate delightful, while the beauties of sun and shade which played in such variegated richness over the broken mountains, and the brilliant sunsets which lit up the many peaks with their purple splendour, and threw their golden shafts far over the shining surface of the calm sea, gave camplife, at that season, a charm to which we had previously been entire strangers.
Notwithstanding the many predictions to the contrary, the health of the troops did not, at that season, deteriorate the " Periculosior aestas autumnus longe periculosissimus," though loudly proPHYSICAL CHARAGTEB "F Tin: the climate, says much for its good. when it is considered how little it was protected inst tinrigours and vicissitudes of sucli weather as.-.ilcd. The officers, although exposed alike with their men, yet suffered far less I'rom sickness a result which can be attributed alone to the better diet, the chan-e <if clothes, the superior bedding, and freedom from manual work, which they enjoyed.
The extraordinary immunity from pulmonary aft- -d ions which existed, was, at least, remarkable; yet, that certain seasons did very decidedly impress their influence on the wounded, I am ready to maintain. this, however, I will speak more fully afterwards. steppe lands of the interior, present, in early iig, a lovely scene of rolling plains of waving g -ay flowers, stretching in unbroken verdure to the horizon. As tinheat increases, all thi tion, ', is soon burned up, from the soil hcini: but thinly strewn over the underlying tertiary limestone. At midsummer, tin- view is dreary and ehe. enough. Is of dust e. the whirling cunvn! sweep over the wide sluidelrss expanse, and the trembling andcrs n>lh>s!y, or the " lutrian "; n weird-like flight beft.re the buniinbreeze.:! only hieh occur at H WAK. uniformity of the barren waste.
An oppressive monotony reigns everywhere. The brown changeless plain, and the brazen sky overhead, continue ever the same; not a shadow is cast across the horizon, and day sinks into night almost without a twilight. Many of the valleys among the mountains of the seacoast, form, on the other hand, a delightful contrast to the dull dreary waste of the steppes, being very beautiful, highly cultivated, and well peopled. The fields were literally covered with fruit trees when I first saw them in spring, and the neat, clean villages of the Tartar peasants, stood clustered round with many-coloured blossoms. Clear, sparkling streams from the overhanging mountains watered the green pastures, which looked like nothing so much as a constant succession of gardens.
The vegetation of the Crimea differs much in different parts. Along the sheltered south coast, it is almost tropical. The vine there grows in luxuriance, and yields a wholesome wine. The mulberry, the fig, and the olive, the pomegranate, filbert, and walnut, together with the peach, the apple, the pear, apricot, and cherry, crown the hill sides, as with a forest, while rare flowers flourish without protection in the open air. In other parts of the peninsula, elm, ash, and beech, together with the juniper and pine, are met with, and high up, clinging to the precipitous rocks, the Tauric pine retains its unstable footing. The wild rose, asphodel, iris, primrose, and hyacinth, deck the ground at various seasons, and the peony astonishes our English notions by its size and fragrance.