480 Instances of the Effects 



note from St. Vincent is from the pen of the late Rev. 

 Lansdown Guilding *, and was made in reference to a short 

 article signed J. R. in this work (I. 384.), in which America 

 was quoted as affording instances of both diminution and 

 increase of rain from clearing the woods. It is an excellent 

 appendage to the quotations from the Baron de Brincken, and 

 the paper on Raining Trees, by Mr. Murray, in M. N. //., 

 iv. 32.: — 



" The climate of this island [St. Vincent] has been con- 

 siderably affected by the continued industry of man, and his 

 daily encroachments on the primeval forest. In the valley of 

 Marriaqua, two fine cataracts, which used to adorn the land- 

 scape, and rush down the sides of the Grand Bon Homme, 

 are now not visible except after heavy rains ; and many por- 

 tions of the cultivated lands, in dry seasons, suffer to a 

 lamentable extent. So much has this change been felt, that 

 laws have been passed to prevent the cutting down of timber, 

 in certain directions, under heavy penalties. The planters in 

 the suffering districts have long since seen with alarm the 

 fatal mistake of their predecessors in denuding the mountain- 

 ous ridges of their neighbourhood ; and have, for many years, 

 planted these parts again. But, in their short-sighted folly, 

 trees were selected which attained but a very moderate height, 

 merely because the wood was useful for cart-work ! To have 

 remedied the serious evil under which they and their descend- 

 ants were to suffer, they should have entered the forest, and 

 selected the seeds and saplings of those giant figs, and other 

 fast-growing native trees, which, though useless as timber, 

 would soon, by their height and magnitude, have attracted, 

 detained, and broken the rolling clouds, which now pass over 

 to the interminable and pathless woods." [St. Vincent, May 1. 

 1830.] 



These facts are worthy of preservation ; and entitled to 

 notice, whether with reference or not to any geological sys- 

 tem or hypothesis. 



Stanley Green, May 14. 1835. 



Mr. Guilding, in the note which Mr. Clarke has obliged 

 us by appropriating, had spoken of mountainous ridges in 

 the neighbourhood of man's residence as the localities which 

 man had denuded. If most of the mountainous sites in 

 St. Vincent are invested with forest, the following valuable 

 note, which Mr. Guilding had penned, is also relevant to 



* Sent me by the editor. 



