TREES AS SHELTER TO GROUND TO THE LEEWARD. 163- 



the cold winds destroy or stunt the vegetation, and that, in con- 

 sequence of " the usurpation of winter on the domain of spring," 

 the district of Mugello has lost all its mulberries, excej)t the few 

 which find in the lee of buildings a protection like that once fur- 

 nished by the forest.* 



The department of Ardeche, which now contains not a single 

 considerable wood, has experienced within thirty years a climatic 

 disturbance, of which the late frosts, formerly unknown in the 

 country, are one of the most melancholy effects. Similar results 

 have been observed in the plain of Alsace, in consequence of the 

 denudation of several of the crests of the Yosges.f 



Dussard, as quoted by Ribbe, :}: maintains that even the misi/rc^^ 

 or northwest wind, whose chilhng blasts are so fatal to tender 

 vegetation in the spring, " is the child of man, the result of his 

 devastations." " Under the reign of Augustus," continues he, 

 " the forests which protected the Cevennes were felled, or destroyed 

 by fire, in mass. A vast country, before covered with impene- 

 trable woods — powerful obstacles to the movement and even to 

 the formation of hurricanes — was suddenly denuded, swept bare, 

 stripped, and soon after, a scourge hitherto unknown struck 



oldest of which is not forty years of age. These plantations have ameliorated 

 the climate which had doomed to sterility the soil where they are planted. 

 WhUe the tempest is violently agitating their tops, the air a little below is 

 still, and sands far more barren than the plateau of La Hague have been trans- 

 formed, under their protection, into fertile fields." — Bevue des Deux Mondes, 

 January, 1859, p. 277. 



* Cenni suUa Importansa e Coltura dei BoscM, p. 31. 



f Clave, Etudes, p. 44. 



It has been observed in Sweden that the spring, in many districts where the 

 forests have been cleared off, now comes on a fortnight later than in the last 

 century. — AsbjOrnsen, Om Slcovene i Norge, p. 101. 



X La Prorenre au point de vue des Torrents et des Inondations, p. 19. 



Dussard is doubtless historically inaccurate in making the origin of the 

 mistral so late as the time of Augustus. Diodorus Siciilus, who was a con- 

 temporary of Julius Cfesar, describes the northwest winds in Gaul as violent 

 enough to hurl along stones as large as the fist, with clouds of sand and gravel, 

 to strip travellers of their arms and clothing, and to throw mounted men from 

 their horses. — BiUiotheca HiMorira, lib. v., c. xxvi. Diodorus, it is true, is 

 speaking of the climate of Gaul in general, but his description can hardly 

 refer to anything but the mistral of Southeastern France. 



