Hills Once Covered With Timber Down to the Banks of the Marsh. This Hill Has Been Badly 

 Washed Away, Owing to the Denudation of Timber in the Valley Above 



has involved that of nations." And to 

 this adds Dana in his Manual of Gcol- 

 oi^y: "Forest regions also keep the soil 

 beneath them charged with moisture, 

 and, like lakes, help to give rivers con- 

 stancy of supply and uniformity of flow. 

 And evil often conies when forests are 

 cut away ; for the rain-waters then 

 speedily reach the river-channels and 

 may occasion alternate periods of 

 wasteful violence and worthless feeble- 

 ness. The cutting away of the forests 

 in the French Alps has led to uncon- 

 trollable erosion, despoiled fields, and 

 impoverishment of the people ; and, in 

 America, to annual seasons of dry mill- 

 ponds, an immense sacrifice of avail- 



able water-power, and destruction of 

 many a mill-site." 



In this country, more than any other, 

 has the wanton destruction of forests 

 been permitted to ])roceed with the ut- 

 most rapidity, until but a swiftly dimin- 

 ishing fragment of its primal splendor 

 still remains. The area of inland waters 

 has greatly diminished. The power of 

 retaining the local moisture in its cycle 

 of continued service has decreased. 

 With the removal of the forests, "the 

 rain-water speedily reaches the river- 

 channels," and is carried away to the 

 sea. And as the moisture received from 

 that source is, in the interior, insuffi- 

 cient for the sustenance of life, the nat- 



60.} 



