CLIMATE OF THE SITE. 



18 



on flat surfaces, are sufficiently marked on undulating 

 and hilly ones. Southern exposures are decidedly su- 

 perior, in point of warmth, to northern slopes, or places 

 lying toward the east or west. Good sites are found 

 in the latter direction, but they are occasionally in- 

 clement ; when such positions are selected, they should 

 occupy, if possible, a western declivity on the east, and 

 an eastern declivity on the west side of the country. 

 High and exposed situations are cold, but have a clear 

 and bracing atmosphere. Windy positions are to be 

 avoided ; as also those which are exposed to draughts 

 of cold air, a peculiarity less apparent to slight inspec- 

 tion than the other, but not less disagreeable and in- 

 jurious in its effects. Aware of this, the inhabitants 

 of hilly countries generally place the ends of their 

 houses toward the length of the valleys, as the winds, 

 for the most part, sweep up and down them, in what- 

 ever direction they run ; and by this arrangement the 

 houses are assailed by fewer cross- draughts than when 

 they are set down across the valley. In dry, well-shel- 

 tered localities, near the sea-coast, these peculiarities of 

 climate are less frequently experienced than in more 

 inland regions. 



Note. — Although written for the humid climate of 

 the British Isles, these remarks are worthy of consider- 

 ation in the dryer atmosphere of America. In many, 

 localities of our new states, owing to causes of disease, 

 which a more extensive improvement and clearing up 

 of the country will abate, the best sites for dwellings 

 can not with safety be occupied. In the older states 

 there are districts still subject to autumnal fevers, 

 chills and agues, chiefly in the vicinity of sluggish 

 water-courses, or undrained swamps, or marshes. In 



