of Forest Vegetation on Climate. 481 



Mr. Clarke's argument, although Mr. Guilding had penned 

 it in relation to a subject cited in II. 381., namely, "the 

 power which running water exerts in removing heavy bodies," 

 and there evidenced by some instances. 



"II. 381. We have yearly before our eyes similar in*- 

 stances of the power of running water : during heavy rains 

 in St. Vincent, while the coast, perhaps, is in a cloudless 

 sunshine, the mountains are deluged with rain ; and the 

 myriads of tributary streams, looking like threads of silver in 

 the mist, giving down their waters together, the ravines are 

 on a sudden fully charged, and the swollen torrents, with an 

 awful roar, a sudden and irresistible fury, 



1 With headlong rage and wild affright, * 



descend towards the ocean, carrying every thing before 

 them. In the Rabacca River, on these occasions, an incal- 

 culable mass of volcanic sand is brought from the choked 

 ravines of the Soufri&re, and masses of rock of many tons are 

 lifted from their temporary resting-places, and brought on by 

 stages to the sea. 



" Our torrents often descend so suddenly as to surprise 

 and carry off the careless washerwomen and their clothes, as 

 well as the negro children sporting in the treacherous bed. 

 On such days, the spectator, seated on some elevated bank, 

 and listening to ' the torrent's awful voice beneath/ could 

 not fail to be gratified. 



' Noble the mountain stream 

 Burst in grandeur from its vantage ground, 

 Glory is in its gleam 

 Of brightness, — thunder in its deafening sound.* 



In an hour all is calm and silent ; the waters have passed 

 down to the ocean, and the torrent-bed is crossed in safety." 

 — [Lansdowi Guilding. St. Vincent, May 1. 1830.] 



The views which Mr. Guilding had entertained are, it 

 seems to us, precisely in accordance with those which Mr. 

 John Murray had expressed in the following sentence in his 

 treatise " On Raining Trees," in IV. 32 — 34. 



" It rains often in the woodlands when it rains nowhere 

 else ; and it is thus that trees and woods modify the hygro- 

 metric character of a country : and I doubt not but, by a 

 judicious disposal of trees of particular kinds, many lands 

 now parched up with drought, as, for example, in some of 

 the Leeward Islands, might be reclaimed from that sterility 

 to which they are unhappily doomed." 



In the notes by Mr. Guilding is yet another connexible 

 with Mr. Clarke's subject. Mr. Guilding had made the 



