33 



their sources, or at the point where the land on the 

 banks had been cleared, 1 made a personal examination 

 of the Beaverkill some four or five years ago, within a 

 day or two after a heavy storm, following the stream 

 for several miles above the point where a tree had 

 never been cut, and found that the water had run down 

 almost to the drought level. 



I have also found, by actual comparison, that these 

 mountain streams have of late years run down quite as 

 rapidly as the streams which in other places run through 

 lands which have been cleared and drained from 

 source to mouth, and I firmly believe that the ex- 

 perience of others will thoroughly coincide with my 

 own in this respect, and if I am correct in my state- 

 ment of the above facts, then I am forced to the con- 

 clusion that the cutting or destruction of the trees at 

 the head waters of our streams is but one, and a very 

 limited one, of the causes of their gradual drying up. 



I suggest the following theory as accounting in 

 part at least for the conditions above referred to. 

 Years ago the lands lying west of this mountain 

 range were very largely unbroken, the prairies were 

 covered to a greater or less extent with natural grass, 

 and the swamps in the low lands were undrained. 

 Under these conditions the winds, which during that 

 time largely prevailed from the West, were surcharged 

 with moisture by reason of the gradual evaporation 

 from the soil, the low lands and the swamps, and 

 when these winds were forced up to a height of from 

 3,000 feet to 4,000 feet, the moisture was condensed 

 into rain, and the mountain tops were saturated with 

 moisture, which slowly and steadily through springs 

 and rivulets kept up the water supply of the streams. 

 During the last thirty years the prairies have been 

 almost entirely reclaimed from their natural state, the 

 low lands and swamps which furnished a large amount 



