8 THE WOODLANDS, 



sky without clouds, surround themselves with an 

 atmosphere constantly cold and misty. They affect 

 the copiousness of springs, not, as was long believed, 

 by a peculiar attraction for the vapours diffused through 

 the air, but because, by sheltering the soil from the 

 direct action of the sun, they diminish the evaporation 

 of water produced by rain. When forests are de- 

 stroyed, as they are everywhere in America by the 

 European planters, with imprudent precipitancy, the 

 springs are entirely dried up, or become less abundant. 

 The beds of the rivers, remaining dry during a part 

 of the year, are converted into torrents whenever great 

 rains fall on the heights. As the sward and moss 

 disappear with the brushwood from the sides of the 

 mountains, the waters falling in rain are no longer 

 impeded in their course ; and instead of slowly 

 augmenting the level of the rivers by progressive filtra- 

 tions, they furrow, during heavy showers, the sides of 

 the hills, bearing down the loosened soil, and forming 

 sudden and destructive inundations. Hence it results, 

 that the clearing of forests, the want of permanent 

 springs, and the existence of torrents, are three 

 phenomena closely connected together. Countries 

 situated in opposite hemispheres, as, for example, 

 Lombardy, bordered by the Alps, and Lower Peru, in- 

 closed between the Pacific and the Cordillera of the 

 Andes, afford striking proofs of the justness of this 

 assertion." 



That this is not a mere sentimental complaint on 

 the part of a great naturalist, grieving over the destruc- 

 tion of forests, may be proved by reference to India, 

 and the famines which appear periodically in certain 



