OUR FOEESTS. 93 



matter into the valleys lielow, leaving the hillsides destitute 

 of the elements of fertility ; the little streams that formerly 

 came leaping and foaming from the wooded hillsides are now 

 only seen for a few months in the spring and autumn, and 

 then there is nothing left of them but dry and pebbly beds ; 

 springs are dried up, and rivers diminished in size ; bleak 

 winds sweep unresisted from the denuded hilltops, prostrat- 

 ing the farmer's grain and strewing the ground with his 

 choicest fruits ; precipitation becomes irregular, now delnging 

 the country with destructive freshets, and anon blighting the 

 farmer's crops by parching droughts. 



Have we presented these changes in too strong colors? 

 Eead the history of the countries of the Old World, the 

 theatre of man's operations for so many centuries. Compare 

 the present condition of many of those countries with the 

 description given by ancient historians and writers. Pales- 

 tine, which the Bible cites as the most fertile land in the Uni- 

 verse, its mountain-tops covered with luxuriant forests where 

 flourished the cedar of Lebanon, unrivalled in grandeur and 

 beauty in the vegetable kingdom, its sloping hillsides teem- 

 ing with the olive and vine, the rich soil watered by the rains 

 of heaven, and the beautiful landscape of verdant height and 

 fertile valley. This once fruitful land is now a scene of deso- 

 lation, without commerce, arts or agriculture. Its mountains 

 are barren, the cedars have disappeared, and it is now deprived 

 of vegetation and water because her forests were destroyed. 



Classic Italy, proud Spain, and beautiful France are to-day 

 reaping the results of this thoughtless destruction of their 

 woodlands. From the barren plateaus of the Alps, Pyrenees 

 and Appenines, burst forth fierce torrents, spreading wild deso- 

 lation in their path and laying waste the fertile fields of whole 

 provinces. Districts that formerly contained the most fertile 

 land and a dense population, have become almost a barren 

 waste deserted by man. 



Rivers famous in history have shrunk into brooks and even 

 disappeared. The poet Addison refers to this fact during his 

 travels in Italy, in one of his poems : 



" Sometimes misguided by tlie tuneful throng, 

 I look for streams immortalized in song, 

 Tliat lost in silence and oblivion lie, — 

 Dumb are their fountains and their channels dry." 



