BIOLOGICAL UTILISATION OF SOIL. Ill 



the very fact of this deforestation, the rich plains of the Gai'onne 

 and the Loire are subjected to disastrous floods, which make the 

 fate of agriculture in these regions extremely precarious. This 

 state of things has not failed to arouse apprehension among the 

 inhabitants. Researches with regard to the question have shown 

 that the devastating character of these inundations is due to the 

 destruction of the forests which formerly covered the central 

 plateau and the Pyrenees. The waters no longer absorbed and 

 regulated by the forest vegetation, flow away on the surface in 

 enormous and sudden waves. The debris thus carried away in 

 vast quantities contributes to the formation of barriers, and give 

 to the waters their destructive power. 



But the danger does not cease there. The navigation of the 

 great rivers, gradually silted up by this waste from the mountains, 

 is rendered very difiicult. So much is this the case, that even 

 Russia, a country so uniformly flat, is threatened in the use of its 

 great waterway, the Volga. The investigations ordei'ed by the 

 Russian Government have demonstrated that this is the result of 

 the drainage of the marshes and the deforestation of the low hills 

 which give birth to the river. In other parts of the country 

 similar effects are observed. Woeikoff further cites numei-ous 

 examples of the power which erosion may acquire in the Russian 

 plains, in consequence of an improper treatment of the soil. 



To come to our own countries of north-western Europe, what 

 shall we say of Scotland itself? The utilisation of the soil there 

 has been bad from the first. Deforestation has long since finished 

 its work. Forests, properly speaking, exist no longer. Heather- 

 moors, peat-bogs, neglected pastures, and deer forests cover the 

 whole tract of country to the north of the Highland border. 

 Forest industries do not exist. The lack of wood prevents 

 pastoral industries. Flocks from which their owners dei'ive but 

 little profit hinder all spontaneous reproduction of the forests- 

 Even the numerous industries which might make use of the 

 motive power of the waterfalls of the country would be compelled 

 to have recourse to foreign lands for the timber which is indis- 

 pensable to them. The country continues to grow poorer ; the 

 ruins accumulate ; the young population emigrates to the cities or 

 to the colonies, on account of the impossibility of finding employ- 

 ment and earning a livelihood on the spot. The rural population, 

 represented by the miserable crofters, seems to have been smitten 

 by a complete arrest of development. 



