DEFORESTATION IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA. 533 



So much as to the influence of forests on springs. Let us now 

 turn to their relation to torrents and their results. The history of 

 some departments in the south of France has shown that the so- 

 called torrential action of water has devastated thousands of acres 

 of fertile land by carrying the detritus into the valleys and deposit- 

 ing it there ; but at the same time the reforestation work of the 

 French Government has gone far enough to prove that the re- 

 clothing of the denuded hills with timber is the practical remedy 

 against these torrents. Not only were the mountain sides them- 

 selves devastated and made useless by the destructive action of the 

 torrents formed after the felling of the forests, but fertile farms for 

 200 miles from the source of the evil were ruined by the deposit of 

 the debris and the population pauperised and driven out. The 

 area of denuded mountain lands requiring reforestation was 

 estimated in 18«6 by M. Demoutzey, Forest Administrator of France, 

 as being 2,964,000 acres. Of this some 780,000 acres of the most 

 injured area have been restored by the Government at a cost of 

 some £2,000.000, and private owners have expended some 

 £4,000,000 to remedy the past folly of devastating the forests by 

 replanting tliem : and all this is reckoned as only about half what 

 is required. The clearing of woodland and the organisation of a 

 police for its protection are regulated by a law bearing date June 

 18th, 18.')9, and provision was made for promoting the restoration 

 of private woods by a statute adopted on July 28th, 1860. Mr. 

 Geo. P. Marsh, United States Minister at several European courts 

 at one time, well remarks, in alluding to these laws in his work, 

 "The Earth as Modified by Human Action": — "When it is con- 

 sidered that both laws, the former especially, interfere verj- materially 

 wnth the rights of private domain, the almost entire unanimity with 

 which they were adopted is proof of a very general popular con- 

 viction that the protection and extension of forests is a measure 

 more likel3- than any other to ai'rest the devastation of torrents, 

 and check the violence, if not prevent the recurrence, of destruc- 

 tive river inundations." The work just referred to, together 

 with a valuable bulletin on " Forest Influences," published by the 

 United States Department of Agriculture during the present year, 

 and written by Mr. B. E. Fernow (Chief of the Forestry Division), 

 and '• Reforestation in France," by Rev. J. C. Brown — to all of 

 which I am indebted for valuable information on these matters — all 

 teem with striking illustrations of the vast importance of this 

 subject, but, though exceedingly interesting, space will not admit 

 of further references. 



And now the question arises, as we think of the history of 

 forest devastation in other lands— France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, 

 America, India, and many others — is there any particular reason 

 Avhy these colonies in the Southern Hemisphere should escape 

 similar results when similar causes are at work ? and, if so, why 

 are we to enjoy immunity from the bitter experience of others ? 



