ON THE TIMBER SUPPLY OF AUSTRALIA. 131 



and third prairie steppes may be said to be entirely denuded of 

 good timber. For a total distance of 400 miles neither oak, ash, 

 elm, birch, pine, or spruce trees were seen, and even the poplars 

 were of small size, and suited for little else than firewood." We are 

 aware that very destructive fires have also taken place not long 

 ago in the United States — fires which seem to have swept over 

 enormous tracts of land covered with forests. In Austria it is 

 now impossible upon a large tract of land, 1700 to 2000 feet above 

 the sea, to grow cereals. The forests which formerly protected 

 the land have been cut down, and the soil has become too dry, 

 parched, and sterile, through exposure to the cutting winds. The 

 inhabitants of the island of Mauritius are now obliged to turn 

 their most serious attention to tree-planting ; and it is to be hoped 

 that they may succeed in quickly arresting the evil effects which 

 the destruction of the natural forests have upon their climate, and 

 the growth of the staple produce of that island. With so many 

 examples before us of a deterioration of the climate and soil as a 

 consequence of the unreasonable destruction of forests, it is almost 

 as easy to prove the amelioration of climate and soil almost desti- 

 tute of trees after successful planting of forests. In Lower Egypt, 

 and in Algeria, the extensive planting of trees by many millions 

 has had a most marked effect upon the yearly rainfall. From the 

 report of the Department of Agriculture for the United States, I 

 take the following : "In many pai'ts of the country forest planting, 

 in the opinion of many observers, is changing the climate and 

 capabilities of the plains beyond the Missouri. Twenty years ago 

 the plains were nearly destitute of trees, and vegetation was 

 parched and scanty ; but it is now claimed that in some localities 

 — where farms have been taken up, villages built, and trees planted 

 — they are clothed with verdure ; and river-beds, which were then 

 dry, are now covered with constantly running water. A part of 

 the city of Denver was built on one of these ancient river-beds, 

 where it was supposed that water would never flow again ; but 

 there is now a constantly-running stream, so large that it has been 

 found necessary to bridge it. Great Salt Lake is said to be seven 

 feet higher than it was ten years ago, and is constantly rising." 

 The reappearance of the spring on the Island of Ascension, which 

 had dried up after the trees had been felled, is another instance of 

 the influence of the planting of trees on springs. The town built 

 near the Lake of Yalentia, in Venezuela, found itself 200 years 

 later fully two miles farther from the water's edge ; and Von 



