1884.] TEE ARIDITY OF SPAIN. 125 



lates water drained thither from the subsoil and adjacent strata, which 

 water can be drawn up and utilized. 



But much of the rainfall, which there, as elsewhere, is the only 

 water - supply of the country, drains away through cracks and 

 openings in the underlying rocks. This may be considered lost — 

 lost beyond all hope of recovery. But why should it be so ? 

 Schoolboys in my young days used to tell a story the point of 

 which lay in the statement, that a thing cannot be said to be lost if 

 you know where it is. If you know where the water has gone, 

 why not follow it ? or get beyond it, and turn back upon it ? This 

 the Forest Engineers have done, and by artesian wells they have 

 compelled it to come by its own pressure to the surface, and rise 

 above this, allowing of a free passage of it to spots where it 

 can be utilized in irrigation works. I know of no country 

 in which artesian wells are so numerous, and yield so abundant a 

 supply. 



Water lost iu marshes is also looked after. It may seem that 

 all which flows into these marshes is not entirely lost. The 

 evaporation from marshes increasing the humidity of the atmo- 

 sphere, promotes vegetation ; and by precipitation it may increase 

 the rainfall. But so long as it is retained there, it is lost to the 

 vegetation of the country. By artificial draining it may, however, 

 be recovered and utilized ; and this is done. 



It may be thought we have heard the last of it now. But it is 

 not so. While most of the superficial drainage finds its way by 

 the rivers over the land to the sea, not a little finds its way under 

 the surface to the sand which constitutes the sea-shore. And some 

 of this, if not all, is utilized through the creation of gardens in the 

 sand below the level of the surface, sunk gardens yielding kitchen 

 vegetables abundantly. 



Meanwhile, there has been ascertained what is the annual rainfall 

 in numerous localities, whence is calculated what is the aggregate rain- 

 fall over the kingdom ; wliat proportion of this passes by evaporation 

 into the atmosphere ; and what proportion passes by rivers into the 

 sea. And the conclusion drawn is, that the rainfall, arid as the 

 climate may be, is far more than would suffice to fertilize the whole 

 laud if it were properly husbanded and applied. 



Such are some of the measures taken by the Forest Engineers of 

 Spain to remedy the aridity which there prevails. 



Scotsmen say, " There are nae folk like our ain folk," and the 

 English often look as if they would say, but say with more dignity 

 than we say our say, " We are the men, and wisdom will die with 

 us ; " and our transatlantic cousins are not far behind us in this 

 same confidence of boasting. Perhaps the most boastful among us 



