and Nations on the extent and situation of Forests. 2Sl 



bits the influence of the physical character of these countries 

 upon the population. 



"Whilst at an early period, the Europeans, by their perse- 

 verance, cleared the country of forests, dried up the swamps, 

 erected dykes along the banks of flowing waters, promoted the 

 free circulation of the air, and by all these means relieved the 

 atmosphere of its noxious vapours ; and, whilst the Ameri- 

 cans are still engaged in the execution of this laudable object, 

 forests have wantonly been destroyed in several countries of 

 Europe ; for instance, in the three peninsulas traversed by 

 the Apennines, the Pyrenees, and the Balkan, as also, in 

 many countries of Asia and Africa, which, under a long-con- 

 tinued civilization, have, as it were, attained to old age, and 

 are now suffering from dryness of the ground and atmosphere, 

 owing to which these countries are completely exhausted, 

 misery is spreading among a scanty population, and the geo- 

 graphical relations present features very poorly developed. 

 An attentive comparison between the southern and central 

 countries of Europe, as regards their agriculture, trade, ma- 

 nufactures, and commerce ; and, again, as regards their im- 

 material interests, leads us to the conviction, that it is especially 

 the absence of mountain forests, which operates as a check 

 upon all the material interests of the southern nations, and, in 

 consequence, causes the immaterial interests of these nations 

 to be depressed. 



Considering the powerful influence of atmospheric humidity 

 upon the various geographical relations, it becomes evidently 

 a matter of importance to analyze our comparisons, and to 

 reduce them to those elements which co-operate in the pro- 

 duction of such a state of the atmosphere. Besides the evapo- 

 ration of the sea, and of flowing and standing waters, it is 

 chiefly the process of evaporation going on in forests, which 

 constitutes a very efficient cause of the difl'usion of moisture. 

 Notice, for example, the agreeable coolness of forests during 

 hot weather, attributable to the evaporation of watery par- 

 ticles from the surface of plants ; and witness the subse- 

 quent local depression of the temperature indicated by the 

 hygrometer, which, on exposure to the action of the forest 

 atmosphere, rises quickly to the highest point of the scale ; 



