Atmospherics

Ewen Alison, in an obscure old book called A New
Zealander Looks Back, makes the unusual claim that
New Zealand has a particularly heavy atmosphere—
about 15lb to the square inch—that tends to make
people, especially in the north of the country, sluggish
and slow-moving. Robin Hyde seemed to reinforce
this notion in her comment on the sickness of New
Zealand soil: she said that it was more obvious in the
north, where it was "bled white and has never been fed
up again, and is a sort of beautiful skeleton." Discuss.