3CG 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[(.if-T. C, 188!: 



< \vry± On the western half of tliis plateau, the Silurians 

 «iip to the east, but they rise again as we follow theni 

 .-astwards, tlius forming a synclinal curve ; still further 

 east, they pass iniihr the Vale of Clwyd, on the eastern 

 side of which the Wenlock Shales are found with a KVft'-rli/ 

 dip, forming the range tliat includes Moel Famniau ; along 

 this eastern range they are well exposed at Cwm and many 

 other points, as bluish-grey unfossiliferous coarse slates or 

 niudstones. 



(To ht con<inu«<i.) 



ENGLISH SEASIDE HEALTH-RESORTS. 



Bt Alfbkd Havilaxd, JLR.C.S., F.RM.C.S. Lend. 



CLASSIFICATION-.— LAND AND SEA WINDS. 



(Conlimiced/nm pagt 212.) 



EAST. From the east coast, within zone I.,* we look 

 straight across to Denmark, as we have said, with its 

 two stations, Tarra and Copenhagen. The peninsular and 

 northern part of Denmark separates tlic Cattegat from the 

 North Sea. This zone includes Berwick (1) and Tyne- 

 mouth (2). 



From Hartlepool (3), Redcar (4), Saltbum (.5), Whitby 

 (6), Scarborough (7), Filey (8), and Bridlington (9), witliin 

 zone II., the observer when looking east is opposite the 

 North Frisian Islands, Sylt Point, Vesterland, the Isle of 

 Heligoland, and the mouth of the Eider. 



The coast within zone III., including Spurn Point and 

 < ireat Grimsby (11), is opposite Hanover and the mouth of 

 tlie Elbe. 



Cromer (14), Great Yarmouth (l.")), Lowestoft (16), 

 Aldt>orough (1~), within zone IV., look towards the East 

 Frisian Islands, Terschelling, Vlieland, and Texel, which 

 form a part of the Netherlands, and enclose the channel 

 leading to the Zuyder Zee, on which Amsterdam, at about 

 '<2' 22' Lat N., stands. 



From tlie coast within zone V., on which we find South- 

 . nd (IS), Sheemess, Heme Hay (19), Margate (20), Rams- 

 gate (21), and Deal (22). The observer, on looking due 

 east, would have opposite to him the mouths of the Maas ; 

 at about .'iP 38', Lat N., the East Scheldt River ; and at 

 ."il° 32', Walcheren Island, where in 1x09 the marsh fever 

 decimat4.-d the Engli.sh army, under the incapable Com- 

 mander-in-Chief, Lord Chatham, the elder brother of 

 William Pitt, who managed to get 7,000 of his men killed 

 by this disease, and lialf of the remainder permanently 

 disabled. Walcheren Island is opposite the mouth of the 

 Thames. 



We have now seen that that part of the east coast 

 which extends from Ilerwick to the mouth of the Ilum- 

 >>er looks towards Denmark, which peninsula — averaging 

 f-.l miles a<T08s — separates the North Sea from the Catte- 

 gat and the Baltic S«-a ; so tliat winds proceeding straight 

 from the.se easterly jxAnts have considerable marine cha- 

 racters. From the mouth of the Humber, however, south- 

 wards to the South F'oreland, f)ur coast faces the westf;rn 

 end of a Ijclt of continent unbroken by a single sea inlet 

 from the wr«t coast of Europe to the east of Asia; so 

 that one could walk on dry land eastward witliin this belt 

 from the west coast of Eur'tpe to the western shore of the 

 Gulf of Tartary, in the Okhotsh Se^, IIT^ long. E., pa-ss- 

 ing through Ilolland, Gennany, Poland, Russia, the 

 Steppf-s of the Kirghiz, and Asiatic Russia ; but the 

 Eurof*- Asian continent contains a still longer belt to the 

 the one jast mentioned. 



We have called attention to these gcograpliic.il facts, not 

 that we believe that any wind that reailics our shores has 

 ever passed along this belt in its entire length, Viut to show 

 how impossible it is for any wind tlint comes to us for any 

 length of time from n remote part of the Continent to be 

 otherwise than deprived of any marine clinraeter it might 

 have set out with. We are speaking now of those east 

 winds tliat blow to us from the Continent, week after 

 week, at some periods of the year, especially during the 

 spring months ; and which have such a baneful ellect on 

 the consumptive and those subject to rheumatism and 

 neuralgia. We do not inchide' in the category of east 

 winds those which come to us from off the sea 

 in the course of their circuits around some local 

 area of low l)aronietric pressure ; nor the morning 

 .vt'd brrfzcs on the east coast, which are caused by the 

 sun-heated surface of the land causing the air ahovo 

 it to ascend, and the cooler air over the sea to take its 

 place. After sunset, the earth rapidly radiates its heat, and 

 cools down to a lower temperature than the sea, over 

 which the warmer air ascends, and, as it were, makes way 

 for the cooler air of the land which (lows towards it, 

 causing the evening htnd breeze. On the west coast, of 

 course, the morning nea breeze would be westerly and the 

 evening larul breeze easterly. Sinii)le as the phenomena of 

 the land and nea breezes are, they contain the elements 

 whicli bring about the circulation of the whole atmosphere 

 of the globe ; and when once mastered and studit-d in con- 

 nection with the earth's rotation, will considerably help 

 the student to understand the causes of the winds and their 

 influence on oceanic currents. 



The east wind as we get it in England is characterised 

 by great dryness ; in fact, it is the driest of our winds, and 

 is in direct contrast to our south-we.st wind, which is the 

 most moist. I^Ir. Alexander Buclian, in his papers on the 

 prevailing winds of the world, has shown why these winds 

 prevail in Great Britain in spring. Ho says that they are 

 always dry; but in some years, as in May, 186(1, they 

 reach an alnv st unprecedented dryness, such low humidities 

 as 44 and 37 (saturation point being 100) having been ob- 

 served at many places in Scotland at nine a.m. As to 

 their cause, he remarks that the Isobaric charts for the 

 .spring months exhibit a smaller difference of mean pressure 

 between Great Britain and the north of Europe than 

 during the other months. This smaller difference arises 

 from the more frequent occurrence during these months of 

 /lif/luir pressures to the north and north-east, or lower 

 pressures to the south and south-east of Great Britain than 

 in Great Britain itself ; and it is from the repeated occur- 

 rence of these throughout the year, that next to S.\y'. or 

 W.S.W., easterly winds are the most prevalent. Sometimes, 

 and in some years—notably during 1807— high pressures 

 prevail to the north-west of Great Britain, in which caso 

 the cold current comes to us a north, north-west, or even 

 west wind. But it matters not from what direction, or in 

 what guise, the cold, dry current comes to us, its noxious 

 characteristics an: the same, and it is nearli/ as injurious to 

 health and vegetation os the "horrid east." 



It must be remembered that mere drywsH would not 

 cause all the evil that is laid to the charge of the east wind. 

 So for as this character, is concerned, it is just possible that, 

 under the circumstances named by Mr. liuchan, tin; winds 

 he names would be dry and exhaust all the moisture possible 

 from trees and plants, and it is possible also that their 

 keenness and dryness combined would materially all'cct the 

 public health in the manner generally attributed to east 

 winds, but the winds named are essentially sea winds, and 

 never lose their marine charact(T entirely, for, although 

 they may be deprived of much of their moisture, they 



