124 THE ARDITIY OF SPAIN. [Dec. 



For these inundations there is a remedy, or rather an effective 

 means of preventing their occurrence. In a volume entitled, 

 Rcboisement in France ; or, Records of the Ecjjlmiting of the Alps, the 

 Cevennes, and the Pyrenees with Trees, Herhagc, a7id Bush, with a vieiv 

 to Arresting and Preventing the Destructive Consequeyices and Effects 

 of Torrents, I have given details of what has been done, and of 

 what has been thus effected, with details of how such effects are 

 produced by such means. 



By planting the basin of reception (the depression into which falls 

 the rain which, by its precipitous rush towards the sea, formed 

 torrents and occasioned inundations), the flow of the rainfall is 

 greatly retarded. The flood, which rushing away in a space of 

 three days, flooding low-lying land, and destroying life and property, 

 may thus be made to occupy a fortnight in flowing away, never rising 

 above the confining banks of the river. Spain has suffered from 

 such floods, but by the reboisement of the mountains their recurrence 

 is being prevented ; and much of the rainfall which otherwise would 

 be swept away to the sea in torrents, is being retarded in its course, 

 to fructify the ground. 



But we have not yet completed the details of what has been done 

 in Spain to remedy the aridity by which its agricultural and horti- 

 cultural development is retarded. In such a land every drop of 

 water available for the promotion of vegetation may be valuable. 

 At the Cape of Good Hope, which has a climate in many respects 

 similar to that of Spain, it is a proverbial counsel, " Do not throw 

 away your dirty water, till you have got clean water to replace it." 

 Similar is the value of water here. Much of the rainfall sinks into 

 the ground, and returns not to the surface, but permeating the soil, 

 sinks into the subsoil beneath. Why should not this be recovered 

 and utilized ? And the Forest Engineers answer, Why not ? In 

 traversing the warm, arid sands of Namaqualand, in South Africa, 

 I was told tliat almost anywhere in that parched region you may 

 get water, if you know how to seek for it. Hollowing out a basin 

 in the sand with your hand, you come to a thin layer — I had almost 

 called it a pellicle — composed of what seems hardened clay, not 

 thicker than a penny. It is impervious to water ; and after a time 

 there gathers in the basin a little water, which has percolated from 

 the lower stratum of sand resting on this ; and of this the traveller 

 may drink. But woe betide him if, through careless handling, he 

 fracture the impervious layer — and it is very brittle ! Forthwith 

 the watei', instead of accumulating in the basin, then sinks to 

 unknown depths below ! In Spain they sink what I may call blind 

 wells to a depth of six or eight feet, and in these there often accumu- 



