Page:Transactions of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, volume 4.djvu/224

 122 quite open to the east, still they are more sheltered from winds blowing from this quarter than from any other. The reason of this I have elsewhere stated to be the precipitous rise of the hill close to the houses, which, in a very decided degree, lessens or breaks the force of the current of air. An easterly wind, indeed, rushes with great rapidity over the crest of the range, but it is sometimes quite, and always comparatively stilled below. I have, on various occasions, been at the summit of the hill, the wind blowing very fresh from the east, while below, in the village, the air has been quite calm; the narrow line of the hills acting precisely as a dam in a current of water would do, destroying the motion below, and allowing the stream to rush over the top.

Westerly winds are sometimes very troublesome, the current, as before stated, coming over the top of the hills with great force, descends in violent eddies and gusts. The general fact being, that close along the base of a high narrow chain of hills, strong winds are more felt on the leeward than on the windward side.