356 EESTOEATION OF THE FOREST. 



opening the dams near its sources, tliat in the course of foul 

 years it excavated below the village a new channel one hundred 

 feet deeper than its ancient bed, and of course undermined the 

 left bank, which was composed of comparatively loose materials, 

 for a long distance. Deprived of its original support, the steeply 

 inclined soil of the commune, to the extent of twenty-five hun- 

 dred acres, including the village of Campo, began to slide down- 

 wards in a body. The movement still continues, many of the 

 houses have heen carried off, some overthrown and the walls of 

 most of the remainder dangerously cracked. Unless costly meas- 

 ures of protection are soon adopted, the whole of this vast mov- 

 ing mass will be washed by the Rovana into the Maggia, and by 

 that river into Lago Maggiore. So insecure is the soU considered 

 at Campo, that, as I was lately told on the spot, meadow and 

 pasture grounds, which, if safe, would be worth a hundred dol- 

 lars per acre, can not now be sold for ten. 



Restoration of the Forest. 



In most countries of Europe — and I fear in many parts of the 

 United States — ^the woods are already so nearly extirpated, that 

 the mere protection of those which now exist is by no means 

 an adequate security against a great increase of the evils which 

 have already resulted from the diminution of them. Besides 

 this, experience has shown that where the destruction of the 

 woods has been carried beyond a certain point, no coercive legis- 

 lation can absolutely secure the permanence of the remainder, 

 especially if it is held by private hands. The creation of new 

 forests, therefore, is generally recognized, wherever the subject 

 has received the attention it merits, as an indispensable measure 

 of sound pubhc economy. Enlightened individuals in some 

 European states, the Governments in others, have made exten- 

 sive plantations, and France, particularly, has now set herself 

 energetically at work to restore the woods in her southern 

 provinces, and thereby to prevent the utter depopulation and 

 waste with which that once fertile soil and genial cHmate are 

 threatened. 



The objects of the restoration of the forest are as multifarious 

 as the motives that have led to its destruction, and as the evils 



