EUCALYPTUS TREES. 15 
perature of the island entirely changed ; even drought 
was experienced in the midst of the ocean, and thun- 
der-showers were rarely any longer witnessed. The 
lagoons, marshes, and swamps along the seaboard 
were no longer filled with water, but gave off nox- 
ious gases; while the river- waters became impure 
from various refuse. After a violent inundation, in 
February, 1865, followed by a period of complete dry- 
ness, fever, of a low type, set in, against which the’ 
remedies employed in ordinary febrile cases proved 
utterly valueless. From the waterless sides of the 
lagoons, pestilential malaria arose, exposed to which 
the laborers fell on the field, and, in some instances, 
died within a few hours afterward. But scarcity of 
good food among the destitute classes, and inadequate 
sewage arrangement, predisposed also to the dread- 
ful effect of the fever, atthe time. As stated by my- 
self, on a former public occasion, marshes should 
either be fully drained or the means of continuing 
them submerged should not be withdrawn. Dr. 
Rogers very properly insists that the plateaux and 
highlands of Mauritius must be replanted, alone 
on sanitary reasons. The small island of Maita re- 
quires, at this moment, to make strenuous effort for 
wood culture, to render tillage further possible and 
the clime more tolerable. The once forest-covered 
hills, which bordered the rich garden country of Mur- 
cia, in Moorish times, are now masses of arid rocks ; 
while Spain, nowadays, is even helpless to obtain its 
' very fuel, and thus all its technologic industries must 
languish. No wonder, then, if our here much-disre- 
garded Eucalypts are called there the trees of the 
future. 
