218 INFLUENCE OF THE FOREST ON SPRINGS. 
Besides, even admitting that the water from summer rains is 
so completely evaporated as to contribute nothing directly to 
the supply of springs, it at least tends indirectly to maintain their 
flow, because it saturates in part the atmosphere, and at the 
same time it prevents the heat of the sun from drying the earth 
to still greater depths, and bringing within the reach of evapo- 
ration the moisture of strata which ordinarily do not feel the 
effects of solar irradiation. 
Influence of the Forest on the Flow of Springs. 
It isan almost universal and, I believe, well-founded opinion, 
that the protection afforded by the forest against the escape of 
moisture from its soil by superficial flow and evaporation insures 
the permanence and regularity of natural springs, not only 
within the limits of the wood, but at some distance beyond its 
borders, and thus contributes to the supply of an element essen- 
tial to both vegetable and animal life. As the forests are 
destroyed, the springs which flowed from the woods, and, conse- 
quently, the greater water-courses fed by them, diminish both 
in number and in volume. This fact is so familiar throughout 
the American States and the British Provinces, that there are 
few old residents of the interior of those districts who are not 
able to testify to its truth as a matter of personal observation. 
My own recollection suggests to me many instances of this sort, 
and I remember one case where a small mountain spring, which 
disappeared soon after the clearing of the ground where it rose, 
was recovered about twenty years ago, by simply allowing the 
bushes and young trees to grow up on a rocky knoll, not more 
Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico exceeds the mean of the whole United States, 
being no less than fifty-one inches, while on the Pacific coast it ranges from 
fifty to fifty-six inches. 
As a general rule, it may be stated that at the stations on or near the sea- 
coast the precipitation is greatest in the spring months, though there are sey- 
eral exceptions to this remark, and ata large majority of the stations the 
downfall is considerably greater in the summer months than at any other 
season. 
