"293 EFFECTS OF DESTEUCTIOlSr OF THE FOREST. 



trees, while it cools tlie air around them, diffuses through the 

 atmosphere a medium which resists the escape of warmth from 

 the earth by radiation, and hence that its general effect is to 

 equilibrate caloric influences and moderate extremes of tempera- 

 ture. 



We have seen, further, that the forest is equally useful as a 

 regulator of terrestrial and of atmospheric humidity, preventing 

 by its shade the drying up of the surface by parching winds and 

 the scorching rays of the sun, intercepting a part of the precipi- 

 tation, and pouring out a vast quantity of aqueous vapor into the 

 atmosphere; that if it does not increase the amount of rain, it 

 tends to equahze its distribution both in time and in place ; that 

 it preserves a hygrometric equihbrium in the superior strata of 

 the earth's surface ; that it maintains and regulates the flow of 

 springs and rivulets ; that it checks the superficial discharge of 

 the waters of precipitation and consequently tends to prevent the 

 sudden rise of rivers, the violence of floods, the formation of 

 destructive torrents, and the abrasion of the surface by the action 

 of running water ; that it impedes the fall of avalanches and of 

 rocks, and destructive slides of the superficial strata of mountains ; 

 that it is a safeguard against the breeding of locusts, and, finally, 

 that it furnishes nutriment and shelter to many tribes of animal 

 and of vegetable life which, if not necessary to man's existence, 

 are conducive to his rational enjoyment. In fine, in well-wooded 

 regions, and in inhabited countries where a due proportion of 

 soil is devoted to the growth of judiciously distributed forests, 

 natural destructive tendencies of all sorts are arrested or com- 

 pensated, and man, bird, beast, fish and vegetable ahke find a 

 constant uniformity of condition most favorable to the regular 

 and harmonious coexistence of them all. 



General Consequences of the Destruction of the Forest. 



"With the extirpation of the forest, all is changed. At one 

 season, the earth parts with its warmth by radiation to an open 

 sky — ^receives, at another, an immoderate heat from the unob- 

 structed rays of the sun. Hence the chmate becomes excessive, 

 and the soil is alternately parched by the fervors of summer, and 

 seared by the rigors of winter. Bleak winds sweep unresisted 



