532 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION G. 



direct bearing on every day life and work, they claim priority of 

 consideration in the limited scope of this paper. 



From amongst the great mass of evidence available in support of 

 the foregoing statements a few brief selections will now be made. 



A Forest Commission, w-hich was appointed in 1881 in the State 

 of New Hampshire, U.S., to inquire, among other matters relating 

 to forests, " on the effect, if any, produced by the destruction of 

 forests upon the rainfall, and consequently upon the ponds a-id 

 streams," presented a general summary of evidence in 1885, from 

 which the following extracts may be given : — 



" Beginning with the southern portion of the State and with the 

 town of Richmond, attention is called to a small stream there, 

 which in 1865 furnished sufficient power for four sawmills nearly 

 all the year, but which began to dry up with the more rapid 

 removal of the timber caused by the introduction of steam as an 

 auxiliary po^A^er. The water and the woods have disappeared 

 together, and the same is the case in the other portions of the 

 toAvn." 



" In Canaan sixty-five years ago there were nine or more mills 

 of dift'erent kinds ;'^ abundant water power all the year round; no 

 thought of reservoirs or precautions against drought. Canaan- 

 street, now covered with a firm dry sod, was laid out through a 

 .swamp, impassable but for the hummocks and fallen trees, while 

 dense forests of giant trees covered the hills. The writer who 

 fm-nishes the above facts, a native of the place, returning after an 

 absence of thirty years, found the hills and rocks bare, the springs 

 choked up, and the mills obliged to resort to steam power or lie 

 idle." 



In their concluding remarks the Commissioners said : — " On one 

 point there is no division of opinion. It is not in the open ground, 

 but beneath the trees, that the moisture and snow accumulate and 

 are slowly and surely supplied to the springs and streams, which 

 then have a perennial floAv. Let the same ground be deprived of 

 its shade, and this exposure to the sun hastens evaporation, and 

 the rain and meltinj> snow rapidly pass off through the water- 

 courses before any sufficient quantity can reach the permanent 

 reservoirs under the surface. The surface itself is often washed 

 off and the exposed rocks given over to perpetual barrenness." 



The Superintendent of Public Works of the State of New York, 

 reporting on the effect of the removal of forests in the Adirondack 

 watersheds upon the navigation of the canals, says, in report for 

 1882 : — "The importance of the preservation of the woods in the 

 Adirondack region in connection with the water .supply of the 

 canals cannot he over-estimated. With the continual cutting 

 away of the forests and the burning of the forest floor the 

 decreasing water supply, has become painfully apparent. Should 

 this contimie the result on the canals would be disastrous." 



