CLIMATE AS INFLUENCED BY THE FOREST. 137 



been produced by the wholesale destruction of the 

 forests by the burning over of their former areas, 



" The limits of the forests, of the belt of decomposition, 

 and of the area over which copious rains fall, coincide very 

 remarkably, and show a dependence upon each other, but the 

 forest belt has a smaller area than that of decomposition or of 

 the rains. The wooded belt seems to have narrowed greatly 

 within comparatively recent times, losing its foothold in the 

 west, where immense regions, now campos, over which the 

 climate and soil would normally be proper for the growth of 

 forests, have dried up, the climate has become hot, less rain 

 now falls, and the forest cannot regain its lost place. Doubt- 

 less there are many natural physical causes to be taken into 

 consideration in studying the distribution of the forest, catinga, 

 and campos florae ; but there is one agency that has been at 

 work in Brazil whose effects we can hardly over-estimate, and 

 that is the burning over of the wood and campos lands by 

 man. The very physical features of the highlands of Brazil 

 determine a difference in the luxuriance in the florae of differ- 

 ent regions, and there are, as I have already shown, regions 

 where for ages the climate has been such that forests could 

 scarcely have had any noteworthy extension, so that there must 

 have always been in Brazil, naturally, virgin forests, catingas, 

 campos, and barrens. On the coast, where the forest is dense 

 and moist, and the climate is wet, forest fires are next to 



* Eeprinted, by permission, from " Scientific Results of a 

 Journey in Brazil," by Ch. Fred. Hartt. Boston : Field, Os- 

 good & Co., 1870. Pp. 620. 



12* 



