6 
to be effectual. A planter, I was told, not long since set oub a 
thousand trees upon his estate, and lost every one. It is probable 
that had this remedy been universally adopted in time, there might 
be a more hopeful future for Santa Cruz. But the final depopula- 
tion of this beautiful island, seems now to be written indelibly 
among the decrees of fate. sad. 
St. Thomas, an island lying thirty miles distant, is similarly 
affected. This island, however, being loftier, and having scarcely 
any level land, seems to attract to itself a rather moro liberal 
amount of moisture from the clouds. 
About fifty miles westward of these islands, and in the same 
parallel, lies the large island of Porto Rico. The land here is al- 
most wholly mountainous, the eastern ridges rising to three thou- 
sand feet. A large portion of the interior is still covered with primi- 
tive forest, a tangled tropical vegetation of vivid perennial verdure. 
The rainfall is abundant, and the soil yields bountiful crops of 
coffee and sugar, with a great variety of fruits. ‘ 
The contrast between neighbouring islands so similarly cituated 
is most striking. The sad change which has befallen the smaller 
ones is, without any doubt, to be ascribed to human agency alone. | 
It is recorded of these, that in former times they were clothed with 
dense forests, and their oldest inhabitants remember when the rains 
were abundant, and the hills, and all uncultivated places, were 
shaded by extensive groves. The removal of the trees was certainly 
the cause of the present evil. The opening of the soil to the ver- 
tical sun, rapidly dries up the moisture, and prevents the rain from 
sinking to the roots of plants. The rainy seasons‘in theso climates 
are not continuous cloudy days, but successions of sudden showers, 
with the sun shining hot in the intervals. Without shade upon the 
surface the water is rapidly exhaled, and springs and streams di- 
minish. There is also, as many believe, an electrical action pro- 
duced by the points of leaves upon the atmosphere, compelling it to 
yield up its moisture. However feeble my be this effect from o 
single tree, the myriad spears of a whole forest presented to the — 
sky, undoubtedly do exert a marked and powerful influence. . It 18 
probably from such a combined action that the drying up of the soil 
from the removal of the trees,—desiroying the balance of nature,— 
goes On with ever increasing rapidity. ; 
equally marked example of the effect we are considering, 18 
seen in the small island of Curacoa, lying in latitude 129 N., sixty — 
miles from the coast of Venezuela. I visited this island in the year 
1845, and found an almost perfect desert, where, according to the 
testimony of the inhabitants, had once been a garden of fertility. — 
Abandoned plantations, the recent ruins of beautiful villas and ter- 
raced gardens, and broad arid wastes without a blade of grass, — 
shewed how sudden and complete a destruction had fallen upon this — 
unfortunate little island. The cause was the cutting down the trees — 
for the export of their valuable timber. The effect followed even — 
more rapidly than at Santa Cruz, as the island lies five degrees — 
farther to the South, and the heat is more intense, The rains have — 
. : 
