and Nations on the extent and situation of Forests, 253 



sustenance and comforts of human life ; whilst the absence of 

 forests carries in its train, dearth, sterility, failure of crops, and 

 scantiness of population. Various provinces of France furnish 

 similar proofs, and demonstrate, on a small scale, that exces- 

 sive aridity leads to poverty and starvation. Many parts 

 of the south of Asia and of America are almost completely 

 overspread with forests ; but, although an excess of moisture 

 helps to raise vegetation and the lowest class of animals to 

 a high state of perfection, yet the unwholesome dampness of 

 the atmosphere is prejudicial to the growth of animals of a 

 superior organization, undermines the constitution of man, 

 and forms a great barrier to the development of his faculties ; 

 so that the injuries arising from this are fully equal to those 

 created by the prevalence of excessive aridity : hence we con- 

 clude, that mountain forests, by originating a moderate quan- 

 tity of moisture, contribute to the preservation of the general 

 health, likewise to the advancement of agriculture, trades, 

 manufactures, and commerce, as also to the prosperity of the 

 population ; and that they deserve, on that account, the great- 

 est attention, and to be acknowledged as an essential element 

 of comparative geography, which, though it materially influ- 

 ences the progress of civilization, has hitherto been too much 

 neglected by geographers. 



In regard to atmospheric humidity, woody countries diff'er 

 greatly from those destitute of woods. The United States are, 

 by one-half, more damp than the southern parts of Italy ; the 

 shores of the Caspian Sea twice as damp as those of the Bay of 

 Biscay ; the districts of Paris and of the northern provinces of 

 France, scarcely half as damp as Bavaria and Hanover : and, 

 again. Saxony and Prussia suffer much more from moisture, 

 than England, Scotland, and Holland, though these latter are 

 reckoned among the dampest countries in Europe. The eva- 

 poration of forests contributes to this increase of atmospheric 

 humidity, as also to the well known lower state of temperature 

 in the New World, relatively to European countries under the 

 same latitude. These, and similar facts, procure us a positive 

 knowledge of the former physical condition of Europe, and 

 convince us, that Spain, Italy, and France, were, at an earlier 

 period, as woody as the corresponding countries in North 



