598 | ; 
and to cultivate all such forests as are of vital importance tor the well-being—agricul- 
tural and otherwise—of the land, such as those on sandy coasts, on the sides and _ 
crowns as well as onthe steep declivities of mountains, on the sea-coasts and other 
exposed places, and that international principles should be laid down, to which the 
owners of such protecting or ‘‘ guardian forests” be subject, thus to preserve the land 
from damage. 
1. We recognize further that we have not at present a sufficient knowledge of the 
evils (disturbances in nature) which are caused by the devastation of the forests, and 
therefore that the efforts of legislators should be directed to causing exact data to be 
gathered relating thereto. 
It was stated, in the course of the proceedings, that the Rhine, the 
Oder, the Elbe,and other European rivers have lower water-marks. 
than formerly; at Altenbruch, in Hanover, ten Hamburg feet lower in 
1857 than a half century before; that part of the kingdom of Wurtem- 
burg had been reduced to comparative barrenness by the felling of 
trees; that droughts were increasing in severity in Hungary, a fact 
popularly attributed to the deforestation of the country. 
The case of the region near Trieste, on the Adriatic, was particularly 
referred to. It was stated that five hundred years ago a heavy forest 
covered that region, which was destroyed by the Venetians for the pur- 
pose of securing pile-timbers and lumber for commerce, and that after 
the trees were felled the unprotected soil was washed away by storms, 
and the whole face of the country became a dreary waste. In August 
last we passed through that region, and noted it as one of the most 
desolate views presented by any country. The surface far away from 
the coast was completely covered with ledges and rough bowlders, was 
almost destitute of soil, and the heat radiated from the rocks was intol- 
erable. In parts of this broad belt some millions of olive-trees have 
been planted by the Austrian government, the soil for the purpose 
being transported in baskets in some places. It is stated that the 
rains, which twenty-five years ago ceased to fall here, are again\appear- 
ing to refresh the scene. 
Similar statements were made relative to local ameliorations by forest- 
planting on the coasts of Germany, in Upper Egypt, and at Ismaila, and 
in other countries. 
TRANS-MISSOURI IRRIGATING CONVENTION.—Delegates from States 
and Territories west of the Missouri met in convention at Denver on 
the 21st of October, to take preliminary steps toward concerted action, 
by interested States and Territories and the national Government, for 
constructing a general system of irrigating works for the whole western 
arid region. Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and 
Wyoming were represented by delegates; Arizona, Montana, and Da- 
kota by letters from their respective governors; and Nevada by a letter 
from Senator J. P. Jones. R. W. Furnas, governor of Nebraska, pre- 
sided. 
Hon. 8S. H. Elbert, governor of Colorado, stated in his opening address 
that the meridian of Fort Kearney, the ninety-ninth west from Greenwich, 
constitutes a dividing line in the physical characteristics of the con- 
tinent, west of which is found about half the area of the United States, 
and except a tract along the Pacific coast and a small area of river val- 
leys, it is without sufficient rain to be available for agriculture, though 
exceeGingly productive with irrigation. Two great parallel mountain 
chains, the Sierra Nevada and the Sierra Madre, traversing the entire 
domain from South to North, eight hundred miles in average breadth 
of intervening plateau, cut and gorged by great rivers and divided into 
hydrographic basins of great extent by transverse mountain-chains ; 
the great plains descending by the gentlest slopes from the bases of the 
