THE DEVELOPMENT OF CITIES. 



393 



highway. Some cities are free to extend over the plain in any direc- 

 tion, while others are restricted to narrow valleys, or to islands of 

 which they cover the whole. The city of Cadiz, confined upon an 

 island, has very high houses, with terraces and lookouts, the object 

 being to reach a height where the air will be healthy and the rain- 

 water pure. St. Malo is built much after the same fashion, and the 



streets in both cities are very narrow. Every one knows that the 

 principal highways in Venice are canals, and that the several islands 

 are traversed by prodigiously narrow and crooked streets. On the 

 other hand, the cities of Hungary extend over considerable spaces and 

 are thinly populated. The city of Maria Theresa, or Szabadka, for 

 instance, according to E. Keclus, covers a space of eight hundred and 

 ninety-six square kilometres, and is really nothing but a province cut 

 up by regular avenues, by the side of which houses stand at intervals 

 an oasis of stone in the immense plain. 



We may remark, with respect to the bearing of climate, that nar- 

 row and crooked streets protect the inhabitants against heat and against 

 cold, but they foster the accumulation of miasms and prevent the cir- 

 culation of air. Cities tend to expand on the side from which the pre- 

 vailing winds come. x It is the most pleasant side, because it is free 

 from the unhealthy emanations of the town. 



