SUPPOSED INFLUENCE OF FOEESTS ON RAIN-FALL. 171 



diminution of the lakes of Central Africa described by Livingstone. It is 

 almost exclusively in reference to the present condition of the region border- 

 ing the Mediterranean that the theory in question has been urged, and it is 

 from their hapless fate that the inhabitants of other regions, not yet suffer- 

 ino- in like manner, are warned. The reasons of this will be obvious enou2:h. 

 The intimate connection of that region with the development of the human 

 intellect renders ever^-thing connected with its past history and present con- 

 dition a matter of profound interest to other nations who have received from 

 that quarter the light of civilization. Few care enough for the past or 

 present condition of Equatorial Africa to investigate the changes of climate 

 it may have undergone ; and certainly historical research on such a point 

 would there be quite unavailing. The same may be said of the southern por- 

 tion of Central Africa, of Central South America, and of most other areas 

 where the phenomena of desiccation have been displayed on a large scale. 

 It is only around the Mediterranean, and in the region to the east of it, that 

 we can ever expect any historic light of importance on this question. Some 

 special inquiry ought therefore to be made from a historical point of view 

 into the evidence which those countries are able to furnish bearing on the 

 problem before us. 



It might be supposed, from the positive manner in wdiich it is stated 

 by man}' that the cutting down of the forests in the countries bordering 

 on the Mediterranean has brought them to their present condition, that 

 historic records showed that that whole region was once heavily covered 

 b}' a growth of trees. This is by no means the case : it cannot be proved 

 from the works of ancient authors that those countries have ever, within the 

 historic period, been even moderately well provided with forests. The re- 

 mains of petrified trees, which are found over portions of this area, belong 

 to a prehistoric period, and probably to the later Tertiary. No representa- 

 tions of the scenery found among the monuments of Eg3'pt give us authority 

 for placing that country among the forest-covered regions. 



Mr. Burton evidently believes that, in the case of the region explored by 

 him with special reference to its ancient mining work (the Land of Midian), — 

 where he thinks that mining operations were carried on up to the seventh 

 century of our era, — the necessities of such work demanded the use of a large 

 amount of fuel, and that this would prove that the country was formerly 

 well clothed with forests. This, however, need not have been the case, as 

 may be illustrated by reference to what the writer has himself observed in 



