FORESTS AND RAINFALL, . 189 
regions—in the neighbourhood of St Petersburg, for example— 
where the climate is colder and damper, and evaporation less?” 
This is the point which Ototzky wished to verify in his 
campaign of 1897, and this is his conclusion :—‘ In spite of 
different physico-geographical and climatic conditions (sub- 
terranean waters being abundant and near the surface, and 
the climate cold and very damp, etc.), I met, in the forests of 
the northern belt of Russia, the same fact as in the steppes. 
Everywhere in the forests I studied, the level of the subterranean 
waters 1s found lower than in the neighbouring open ground.” It 
appears that this conclusion applies generally to the whole of 
Russia, on condition, of course, that the soil has the same 
‘mineralogical composition, and that its various layers are 
horizontal, this being the cause of the immobility of the 
subterranean waters. These results were so contrary to the 
prevailing ideas, that it was necessary to verify them, and to 
see if different climatic conditions, notably a much greater 
rainfall, would not modify and even reverse the results obtained 
in Russia. 
On the tst July 1899, Monsieur Daubrée, Director-General of 
Forests, consented, at M. Henry’s request, to grant the Forest 
School a sum for research into the influence of forests on 
subterranean waters in the north-east of France, where the rain- 
fall is about three times greater than it is in the governments 
of Voronej and Kherson. The forest of Mondon, near 
Lunéville (Meurthe-et-Moselle), was chosen for this investiga- 
tion, because it realises sufficiently well the desired conditions. 
The observations, taken uninterruptedly from 4th May 1900 to 
24th August 1902, during twenty-eight months, from eight pairs 
of borings made at random under the forest and in the bare 
lands adjoining, proved that the level of the subterranean waters 
zs, in all seasons, three decimetres at least lower under woods than 
outside them. ‘Thus in a climate where the rainfall is much 
greater than at St Petersburg (80 cm. of waterfall at Mondon, 
and only from 45 cm. to 50 cm. at St Petersburg), the remark- 
able evaporating power of the forest makes itself clearly felt by 
the lowering of the water-level in the soil. 
At the same time, M. Tolsky was making observations in the 
forest of Parfino, near Staraia-Russa (government of Novgorod), 
where there is a School of Forestry. “In concluding,” says the 
author, ‘“‘this short account of our observations made regarding 
