164 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



yielded water only six weeks in the 

 whole year." This was written in 171 5. 



Near the little village of Orgelet 

 (Jura) at the foot of the east slope of 

 the Orgier Mountain, in the parish of 

 Plaisia, there is a spring called the 

 fountain of Plaisia, which disappeared 

 during the entire time that the moun- 

 tain remained cleared of its forests 

 (from the end of the eighteenth cen- 

 tury to the middle of the nineteenth) 

 and reappeared thirty years ago when 

 the work of reforesting the slope had 

 been finished. Numerous inhabitants 

 of the country testify to this fact. 



Mr. Alphonse Mathey has noted an 

 interesting fact in an article entitled 

 "The influence of the forest on the flow 

 and the regularity of springs." Ac- 

 cording to the testimony of the mayor 

 of Flacey (Cote d'Or), the spring sup- 

 plying his village had always had a 

 constant and regular flow as long as the 

 limestone uplands from the foot of 

 which it issued, remained covered with 

 a coppice of vigorous oak over an area 

 of 100 hectares. At the beginning of 

 the nineteenth century, this area hav- 

 ing been deforested, the spring no 

 longer had a regular flow and entirely 

 ceased to flow the greater part of the 

 time. 



The same author recounts observa- 

 tions made by Mr. de Rothenbach, di- 

 rector of the water service of the city 

 of Berne, on the flow of the springs of 

 that city. The flow per minute of two 

 of them, the Schliern and the Gasel, va- 

 ried from one to two and seven-tenths 

 and from one to four and one-tenth, 

 while the variation of a third spring, 

 that of Scherli. is represented by the 

 numbers one and six and seven-tenths. 

 Now, the basin of the springs of Gasel 

 and Schliern is sheltered by a consid- 

 erable mass of forests, while that of 

 Scherli comes from a mountain partly 

 deforested. These investigations clearly 

 prove that the presence of the forest 

 tends to give the springs a regular and 

 constant flow. Other observations also 

 prove that the forest, during dry times, 

 gives out slowly the water that it has 

 stored up during a rainy period. Thus 



during the summer of 1893, which was 

 marked by a long and destructive dry 

 period, the spring of Scherli reached 

 its smallest flow September 3, 1893 ; 

 that of Gasel did not reach its low-water 

 mark until three months and a half 

 later : that of Schliern six months and 

 a half later. 



In Algeria, "the trees disappeared 

 and the springs dried up," said Doctor 

 Courchon ; "in the canton of Bouffarik. 

 formerly noted for its rich water sup- 

 ply, fifteen springs decreased in two 

 years from 1,316 to 710 liters; rivers 

 such as the Oued Chemla, which had a 

 flow in 1864 of 150 to 180 liters, no 

 longer yield more than from seventy to 

 eighty liters ; the Oued Kremis, which 

 had a flow in 1864 of from 100 to 200 

 liters, in 188 1 had a flow of only fifteen 

 liters. The water supply of cities like 

 Saint-Denis-du-Sig disappeared and 

 water was shipped in over the rail- 

 ways. The water in the canals of the 

 city of Algiers diminished from year 

 to year. At the gates of the city a 

 striking example of the dearth of water 

 can be observed : Thirty years ago the 

 Oued M'Kacel in its cool valley had 

 the power to turn four mills ; to-day 

 water and mills have disappeared with 

 the forest that covered Mount Bouza- 

 rea." 



The eminent geographer Onesime 

 Reclus cited the example of the city of 

 Tunis, which was formerly supplied 

 with pure water from the springs is- 

 suing from Mount Zaghouan, springs 

 that have disappeared since the moun- 

 tain was deforested. 



The flow of the streams diminished 

 notably at Martinique after the island 

 was deforested, a result of extensive 

 cuttings to make charcoal. In the 

 same way the canal, made in 1867 by 

 Admiral de Gueydon to convey good 

 water to Fort-de-France, diminished 

 considerably, and the government of 

 the colony has very recently adopted 

 measures to check the deforestation. 



Mr. Crahay, inspector of waters and 

 forests at Brussels, noticed at Planchi- 

 mont that the flow from the springs of 

 La Sure became more regular after the 



