dykes whereby she strove to supply her wants were at the best poor
substitutes for Nature's bulwarks. Here again geographical features will
be found to have had an important bearing on the course of history, the
close connection of the two countries, in almost every age, resulting
from their physical conformation.




CHAPTER II.

CLIMATE AND PRODUCTIONS.

"Assyria, celebritate et magnitudine, et multiformi feracitate
ditissima."--AMM. MARC. xxiii

In describing the climate and productions of Assyria, it will be
necessary to divide it into regions, since the country is so large, and
the physical geography so varied, that a single description would
necessarily be both incomplete and untrue. Eastern Assyria has a climate
of its own, the result of its position at the foot of Zagros. In Western
Assyria we may distinguish three climates, that of the upper or
mountainous country extending from Bir to Til and Jezireh, that of the
middle region on either side of the Sinjar range, and that of the lower
region immediately bordering on Babylonia. The climatic differences
depend in part on latitude; but probably in a greater degree on
differences of elevation, distance or vicinity of mountains, and the
like.

Eastern Assyria, from its vicinity to the high and snow-clad range of