270 PROGRESS OF METEOROLOGY IN l»89. 



floods in the river valleys. This result is effected in three different 

 ways: 



(1) The foliage of the trees catches a portion of the rain and holds it 

 until evaporated. 



(2) On steep slopes forests furnish a permeable covering of earth, 

 which acts in a high degree as a i^rotection against a rapid run-off' and 

 prevents the rapid and complete denudation of the surface covering 

 itself. 



Euthless de-forestation in Lusatia has opened the way for disastrous 

 floods. {Meteorologische Zeitschrift, 1889, vi, p. 261.) 



Forests and rain-fall. — The annual report of the Commissioner of 

 Agriculture for 1888 contains an interesting review by Dr. B. E. Feruow 

 of the literature on forests and rain-fall. The numerous attempts to 

 prove statistically the eflect or the non-eflect of forest^ in modifying the 

 precipitation are shown to be inconclusive. 



Forestry in Burniah. — The first annual report of the conservator of 

 the fores<^s of Upper Burmah shows that much has been done in a short 

 time towards the protection of forests. A staft' of eleven assistants has 

 been employed, and in some cases escorts have protected these oflBcers 

 in their work. Fifty-seven people have been convicted of offenses 

 against the forestry regulations, but serious loss has still resulted to the 

 forest revenue from the plundering of unmarked timber by local traders. 



Forestry in China. — By a government proclamation, well directed and 

 determined eflorts are to be put forth toward afforestation in China. 

 China is a treeless country, and to this are perhaps due the devastating 

 floods that have caused such repeated damage. Slight attempts have 

 previously been made to plant extensive tracts with forest trees, but 

 the strong northerly winds which prevail soon uprooted those that had 

 not been planted to a sufficient depth nor in well -chosen i^laces. 



The methods now to be adopted are those of education in forest 

 culture and local encouragement and reward for successful work. 

 {Nature, xxxix, p. 594.) 



Climate of geologic epochs. — Dr. Neumayer, in a paper before the So- 

 ciety for the Extension of the I^Tatural Sciences, in Vienna, aigues 

 against the theory of a uniform climate over the earth in any geological 

 epoch. He shows that the occurrence of any given flora or fauna does 

 not prove any definite climatic conditions, because plants are able to 

 adapt themselves to different environment. Again the theory of a uui- 

 form flora over the earth in the carboniferous age can not now be ad- 

 mitted. The climate of Greenland and Grinnell Land since tertiary 

 time has grown colder by an amount not much less than 30° C. Europe 

 also shows an important cooling. But in the opposite hemisphere at 

 the same latitudes the cooling since tertiary time has been strikingly 

 less. In the miocene flora of Japan there is no sure evidence of a 

 climate warmer than that of to-day and in the pliocene flora there are 

 indications of a colder climate. These facts point to a change in the 



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