120 THE ARIDITY OF SPAIN. [Dec. 



bloom. But I must admit that the picture given by Dr. Wylie is 

 most accordant with the accounts given by tourists. Most, if not 

 all, have tales to tell of the aridity of Spain ; and this aridity, said to 

 be so characteristic of the country, is generally attributed by our 

 countrymen to the destruction of forests and trees. Apparently 

 under a similar opinion, there has been taken up by the Ingenicros 

 dc Monies, the forest officials of the State, or has been submitted to 

 them, the question : How can this evil be remedied ? 



I am familiar with what they have proposed and done. I have 

 not become acquainted with the train of thought through which they 

 have reached their conclusions, or the order in wliich attention was 

 given by them to the several measures which they have proposed or 

 adopted ; but I shall in my lecture take up in succession different 

 matters requring attention in preparing a satisfactory reply to such 

 a question, in no case departing from the line of remedial measures 

 which they have devised. Arid as Spain may be, much of the water 

 which falls upon it in the form of rain flows away to the sea, where 

 it is lost to Spain. If every drop of rain falling there were retained 

 and utilized, doubtless the humidity of the country would be very 

 different from wliat it is. And it almost seems as if to secure this 

 were the achievement which the forest service of Spain is trying to 

 effect. 



One preliminary matter to be determined is, what is the quantity 

 of the rainfall in the several districts of the kingdom, and what 

 becomes of this ? This has not been neglected ; and while it was 

 being ascertained, much information on other points on which it 

 ■was required has been collected. A second question raised is, How 

 is the rainfall produced in Spain, and how is the distribution of it 

 determined ? A cry has been raised, and perhaps not without 

 reason, that the aridity has been produced by the felling of forests. 

 But with liberal allowance for all that may have been thus done, and 

 with liberal allowance for all that may have been effected by forests 

 in the distribution of the rainfall both in space and in time, it 

 remains apparent that the original distribution of forests over the 

 coimtry, if it have been determined liere as it has been determined 

 elsewhere, must have been determined by the previous distribution 

 of the rainfall. And the original distribution of the rainfall must 

 have been determined by the superficial contour of the country ; 

 and as it was then, so may it be still. Into this then we must 

 enquire, and ascertain the effects. It has been found to be the 

 case, that much of the area of Spain is a high-lying plateau, 

 with an elevation above the level of the sea equal to that of the 

 Alps ; that the moisture-laden winds coming from the Atlantic and 

 from the Mediterranean, as they advance upon the land encounter 



