l893.] BUSINESS PROCEEDINGS. 23I 



The report was unanimously adopted as the sentiment of the 

 Society, and ordered published. 



Mr. Arthur L. White, U. S. Weather Observer, read a paper 

 entitled : 



THE EFFECT UPON CLIMATE OF DEFORESTATION AND 

 AFFORESTATION. 



In this paper Mr. White suggested that the decadence of ancient 

 Asiatic civilization might be partly due to unfavorable climatic 

 conditions produced by deforestation. He gave statistics of the 

 amount of woodland in the United States and in New York ; the rate 

 of timber destruction, and showed how at the present rate of cutting 

 there would soon be a dangerous lack of forest. He discussed the 

 causes of rainfall and the climatic effects of forests, and also consid- 

 ered their hygienic, economic and aesthetic value. 



Remarks were made by Mr. Arthur S. Hamilton, President of 

 the Forestry Association, and Mr. Herbert Wadsworth, of Avon, N. Y. 



The President read a communication from the Smithsonian 

 Institution in reference to the Hodgkins fund prizes for essays upon 

 the properties of atmospheric air. 



The President described briefly the results of the work of Mr. 

 Frank Leverett in tracing glacial moraines through Western New 

 York, and stated that the Pinnacle Hills esker was found to terminate 

 at its western extremity near the Fireman's monument, Mount Hope 

 Cemetery, in a low moraine passing through the southwestern and 

 southern portion of the city in a direction approximately northwest 

 and southeast. 



December ii, 1893. 



STATED meeting. 



The President, Professor H. L. Fairchild, in the chair. 

 A small number of persons present. 

 The following paper was read : 



