THE WEATHER, AND WEATHER PROPHETS. 173 



of North America is said to be gradually diminishing, 

 and the climate otherwise altering, in consequence of the 

 clearance of the forests ; while, on the other hand, under 

 the beneficent influence of a largely increased cultivation 

 of the palm in Egypt, rain is annually becoming more 

 frequent. Lakes are cited in what was formerly Spanish 

 America whose water supply (derived of course from at- 

 mospheric sources) had been so largely diminished, owing 

 to the denudation of the country under the Spanish re- 

 gime, as to contract their area, and leave large tracts of 

 their shores dry ; which, now that the vegetation is again 

 restored, are once more covered by their waters. Even 

 in our own southern counties complaints are beginning 

 to be heard of a diminution of water supply, partly, it is 

 said, owing to gradually decreasing rainfall from the 

 universal clearance of timber,* though chiefly perhaps 

 attributable to robbing the springs of their supply by 

 draining a practice beneficial no doubt to agricul- 

 ture, if used with caution and in moderation, but 

 of which the consequences, if carried to excess, may ere 

 long be very severely felt, in rendering large tracts of 



* On the other hand, forests, owing to the immense evaporation 

 from their foliage which must be supplied from the soil beneath, 

 have a direct tendency to drain that soil upwards, and so throw its 

 moisture into the air. This has been well pointed out and strongly 

 insisted on by M. le Marechal Vaillant, in "Les Mondes," T. 8, 

 p. 674. As a matter of fact, it seems pretty distinctly proved by 



the collection of data laboriously accumulated by Mr Symonds 



that the annual average rainfall is decreasing over the whole of the 

 British Isles, and more especially along a line running nearly S.W. 

 N.E. from Cornwall to the Wash. (Symond's Report of British 

 Association, 1865.) 



