Page:Transactions of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, volume 2.djvu/190



It is a certain fact that the bare verge of the ocean, where the coast is unbroken by projecting headlands, and destitute of retiring bays or inlets, is considerably colder, on the average, than places a few miles inland, provided the latter are not materially elevated, and are, at the same time, sheltered from the sea breezes by intervening but moderate heights, such as the ridge of low hills just described, which here ultimately connect themselves (excepting some intervening fissures,) with the Cleeve-hills, Brockly-down, Black-down, and the Dundry-ridge; in closing, in their circuit, the vale of Bristol, including the Hotwells, Bedminster, Long Ashton, Bourton, Backwell, Nailsea, Kem, Brockley, &c. which compose, together, an irregular oblong plain, nearly twenty miles in length, at the north-east end of which Bristol is situated, and where it is again covered in to the north and east, by the rising grounds of Kings-down, Stapleton, Kingswood, &c.

It is difficult to conceive a locality more advantageously circumstanced as to shelter, the boundary being, on all sides, sufficiently high to arrest or moderate the winds from whatever quarter, and not high enough to cool, sensibly, the atmosphere by its elevation. Were those eminences considerably higher; were they, for instance, one thousand feet or more high, instead of two or three hundred, as they actually are, the chilly atmosphere embracing their summits, and descending by its gravity to the places at their base, would more than counterbalance the protection they might afford from the maritime blasts; but being, as nearly as possible, of the requisite elevation for the purposes alluded to, we can