5 
tion of 100 to 92°5, while the evaporation in the forest was 
only one-third of the evaporation in the open. The result 
of this is that the actual water received and retained from 
the atmosphere is nearly fifty per cent. greater in a forest 
than that received and retained by the plains. Numerous 
observations have also established the fact that the forests, 
as ready conductors of electricity, influence the current of 
vapours, and that their action is felt far above the actual 
height of the trees. Also that they condense the clouds 
into rain by lowering the temperature, and act as bul- 
warks against the severity of storms ; all this we know by 
daily experience and observation. That want of forest 
protection may have most fearful results has been so often 
and sadly proved, and I need only remind you of the 
disasters caused by great floods and long droughts in Spain, 
South of France, Sicily, Chili, Peru, Mauritius, and many 
other places, and you will grant the importance of the 
question. In the Murcia valley the river was reduced to 
a succession of stagnant pools, which during the summer 
heat developed malaria, fever, and miasmatic exhala- 
tions, detrimental to life and health, and furnishing but 
scant and bad accommodation for the few remaining fish. 
But as soon as the winter rains came, the river, in fact 
nearly all the valley, became a raging torrent, destroy- 
ing life and property, and all because the forests on the 
ranges and mountains had been devastated, no legal 
restrictions protecting them. As a question of national 
economy, as a question of protection to life and property, 
and as a question of prosperity, forest protection has 
therefore the greatest claim to the attention of the Legis- 
lature. But to us as a means of yielding a constant supply 
of water, food, and shelter for the fishes, it has also great 
significance. The forest, with its numberless roots and 
