MEIPICAL AND SURGICAL ASSOCIATION. 121 



their geological formation. The general rock fornnation of the 

 Landsend is primitive, consisting of granite, with varieties of 

 elay slate, containing, however, subordinate strata of other rocks, 

 principally hornblende and felspar, and, more sparingly, primitive 

 limestone and serpentine. The striking feature in the geology of 

 the plain of Worcestershire, is the extensive new red sandstone 

 formation, which, resting upon the Malvern Range, extends from 

 thence nearly to the opposite side of the county, where the lias and 

 oolite limestones are chiefly found. The city of Bristol is situated 

 chiefly upon red sandstone. The whole plain occupying a basin of 

 ■which the mountain limestone forms the outer wall, is composed 

 of the same rock, while the heights upon which Clifton is built, 

 ■with St. Vincent's Rock, and the cliffs on the opposite side of the 

 Avon, are of the mountain limestone. For more particular details 

 "we must refer to the respective papers, and as regards the plain of 

 Worcestershire to the illustrations of the Natural History of that 

 county by Dr. Hastings, of which we have elsewhere taken notice. 

 Dr. Forbes enters into very ample details respecting the climate 

 of the Landsend, a subject which is of very great interest in every 

 point of view, but especially as Penzance, situated near the extreme 

 point of this locality, has been particularlyrecommended for invalids 

 on account of the advantages which it is supposed to possess in 

 this respect. The value of the paper of Drs. Carrick and Symonds, 

 ■would have been materially increased by tables similarly construct- 

 ed with those given by Dr. Forbes; or at least by some more defi- 

 nite information respecting the range of the thermometer and 

 barometer, and the annual and monthly means of temperature and 

 atmospheric pressure. From what we have been able to collect 

 from their observations upon this important subject, it would 

 appear that the climate of Bristol is mild, and that the surround- 

 ing atmosphere is by no means subject to those impregnations of 

 moisture which the situation upon the west coast, and other local 

 peculiarities, would lead us to expect. 



** The geographical position of Bristol," observes Dr. Carriclc, " is not less 

 favourable than its locality, to the mildness of its climate. At the extremity of a 

 narrow bay or inlet of a hundred miles in length, it participates of the equalizing 

 influence of the ocean on its superincumbent atmosphere, and is comparatively 

 exempt from the storms and tempests to which the more projecting coast of the 

 English Channel is obnoxious, as well as from the humidity which characterises the 

 south coasts of Devonshire and Cornwall ; the latter being more advanced into the 

 ocean, and surmounted every where by lofty mountainous ridges, attract and 

 condense the clouds, surcharged with moisture, as they roll in from the Atlantic ; 

 and thus a smaller portion of rain, and fog and damp, is left for the more inland 

 situations. In this way we can easily account for the quantity of rain which falls in 

 Bristol and its vicinity, being considerably less than in any of the more westerly 

 districts, not averaging more than twenty-four inches ; and for the smaller depth of 

 snow at Bristol than in most other parts of the kmgdom. There have, in fact, been 

 winters in which none whatever has been observed to fall ; many, in which that 

 ■which did fall, dissolved the instant it touched the ground ; and four or five winters 

 have passed m succession, in which it would have been impossible to make a snow- 

 ball ; and this, too, while in almost every other part of the kingdom the snow lay to 

 a considerable depth. The deepest snow at Bi-istol, within our remembrance, was 

 in 1795 and 1813. In both these winters, the snow, on the average, where it was 

 ^ot drifted nor partially blown off, was from ten to twelve inches deep, which. 



