1884.] EJDITOB'S BOX. 331 



Sir, — I dare say it may be of interest to some of the readers of 

 * FoRESTEY ' to hear what damage was done here by the late gale. 

 The wind was from the south-west, unaccompanied by snow. It 

 overturned some two hundred Larches and a few Spruces and Oaks 

 situated on the western side of a valley extending north and south, 

 but at a considerable altitude, not under nine hundred feet above 

 sea level. 



About a dozen of the Larch were broken off about six feet from the 

 ground ; the others were uprooted, carrying several yards of earth 

 with their roots. The soil on which they were standing is dry and 

 loose, with rock and shale here and there appearing. 



It is curious to observe that some fifty of these trees were growing 

 on the spot where a previous growth of Larch, some sixty or seventy 

 years old, was overturned by a storm in July, 1853. In that gale — 

 perhaps the most disastrous that has ever occurred to life and 

 property in this county — the whole of this section of this plantation, 

 carrying upwards of one hundred and seventy large trees, was 

 swept down en masse, creating thereby such a noise, in addition to 

 that of the raging storm, that the neighbouring cottagers thought the 

 end of the world was at hand. 

 Castle Madoc, Brecon, February, 1884. H. P. Powel. 



BAIN FALL IN NORTH WALES. 



Sir, — In the event of a change of climacteric influence which would 

 give us a cycle of dry seasons, I very much fear that we should 

 suffer severely from a scarcity of water. The great area which has 

 been, drained during the last ten years is beginning to affect the 

 wells in this district even now. Notwithstanding the great excess 

 of rainfall which we have had every summer lately, we find in the 

 month of September in each year the springs fail to a certain extent 

 in many places, and such a summer as we had in 1870 would be a 

 calamity more readily imagined than described. The rainfall, 

 instead of remaining in the soil and gradually sinking into lower 

 strata to supply the springs, is now drawn off by innumerable 

 channels and is carried away into our streams and rivers very 

 quickly. I imagine it will be found necessary by our Government 

 to take the matter up, and form reservoirs amongst the hills in the 

 same manner as the inhabitants of large towns have been compelled 

 to do. During the summer of 1870 I met a large farmer from the 

 south of England who told me he was obliged to drive his stock, 

 consisting of some hundreds of heads, a distance of five miles to 

 water, and by the time they got back they were as thirsty as when 



