FISHERIES, GAME AND FORESTS. 507 



must be essentially satisfied first of all before any water can run ofT ; and, further, tliat 

 the evaporation element is so exceedingly persistent that it only varies in a moderate 

 degree from year to year. 



The Sudbury, Cochituate, and Mystic drainage areas are not heavily timbered. 

 As to just the proportion of timber on each, I am not at present able to present the 

 figures, but as the result of journeying over these areas a number of times I should 

 say, albeit in a somewhat off-hand way, that the proportion of timber is so small as 

 to exercise comparatively little influence on the run-off, it being apparently well 

 established that drainage areas which are nearly denuded, or, at any rate, so far 

 denuded that the winds sweep freely through the small quantity of timber remaining, 

 are substantially in the same condition as completely deforested areas. Assuming, 

 then, that the mean temperatures of these areas are substantially as stated, we must 

 conclude that the differences in run-off which appear are due almost entirely to 

 marked difference in character of soil of the drainage areas. In view of the long 

 records available for these three Massachusetts areas we must conclude further that, 

 as regards them at any rate, there are elements other than the temperature which Mr. 

 Vermeule has unfortunately stated as of no importance at all. 



Space will not permit of pursuing the analysis of the Massachusetts records to any 

 length. For tiie benefit of those interested in the general subject I may state that 

 the tabulations referred to are given in full detail in a report to the Honorable State 

 Engineer and Surveyor and the Honorable Superintendent of Public Works of the 

 State of New York, on the Upper Storage Surveys, which will appear in the annual 

 report of the State Engineer and Surveyor for the fiscal year ending September 30, 

 1896, and which will be issued in two or three weeks. A large amount of additional 

 data, to some of which I shall refer in the succeeding pages of this paper, are also 

 given in the same report as well as in the report on the Genesee River Storage con- 

 tained in the same volume. All of this data so far as used in the present paper I 

 have been permitted to use in advance of their publication in the reports of the 

 Department by courtesy of the Honorable State Engineer and Surveyor. 



We may now refer to some of these data gathered in the State of New York, 

 considering first the drainage area of the Upper Hudson River. In 1895, the Legisla- 

 ture made an appropriation for the purpose of surveying and examining that portion 

 of the Upper Hudson drainage area within the boundaries of the State of New York, 

 with a view to determining the practicability and expense of constructing a series of 

 storage reservoirs, to furnish water for the enlarged Champlain Canal as well as to 

 compensate the manufacturers on the stream below the point where water for the 

 Champlain Canal is taken on account of the diversion for the use of that canal. The 

 surveys in question have thus far been in my charge. 



