35 



claim to the attention of the Legislature. The forest, with its number- 

 less roots and decaying vegetation, retains the rain water, and prevents it from 

 rushing to the rivers and the eea, while it gives it off to these slowly and steadily. 

 It acts like a great sieve and retains the fine particles of the soil, which the influ- 

 ence of the air and sun, the frost and rain, and the action of the numberless roots 

 have decomposed, thereby fertilizing the land and forming a layer of mould or 

 humus, in which insects, worms, larvae, and other animalcules live and breed. 



In his most interesting paper on fish diseases, Prof. Huxley said that drought 

 or flood did not seem to afiect the saprolegnea* but that a steady flow was bene- 

 ficial to the fish. 



Mr. Wilmot, Superintendent of Fish Culture, Canada, in the discussion 

 which followed, pointed out that the disease nearly always appeared where the 

 regularity of thesupply of water had been disturbed by the destruction of the 

 forests. 



I presume, therefore, that both these learned and practical gentlemen will 

 agree with me in the importance of forest protection as a means of preserving 

 the health of the fishes. 



The branchlets, leaves, decaying and decayed vegetation, produce a vast 

 amount of nourishment for the fish, and one most agreeable to them. Each 

 breeze drops into the water numberless grubs, caterpillars, beetles, flies, and other 

 insects, the food most relished by the fishes, while from the banks and roots 

 worms and grubs are constantly supplying them with delicacies. 



The shade of the overhanging trees is also agreeable to the fish, and one needs 

 only to place a board in a stream and see the fish gather underneath it to be con- 

 vinced of this. 



We all know that a shady deep pool is a good place in which to seek for fish, 

 and have often observed the predilection fish have for the shady side of a stream. 

 But not only as regards fresh-water fishing can this be said. In Denmark it is a 

 well-kno\vn fact, that the best fishing is where a forest is close to the shore, and 

 in particular where the trees, as is often the case in that country, overhang the 

 very sea. The shadowing trees have another, and, perhaps, the far more import- 

 ant effect of preventing a large evaporation, and at the same time, keeping the 

 water clear and cool in summer, while on the same account the winter frosts do 

 not deal so severely with them. In all forest country the changes of temperature 

 are not so severely felt as in a treeless country or on the open plains, and the 

 effect upon the water is even greater. It is a popular saying in Denmark of the 

 forest streams, that they are cool in the summer and warm in the winter, this, of 

 course, meaning that they present that feeling in comparison to the atmosphere. 

 The forests not only regulate the flow of the water, but they purify the water. This 

 is an experience often demonstrated in Australia in cases where streams have 

 been polluted by wool-washing establishments. After having passed a few miles 

 through a shady and dense forest, the water will appear as clear and pure as it 

 was above the woolwash. 



I need not here enter upon more reasons for the conservation of existing forests 

 to insure a steady supply, or to draw your attention to the danger in not protect- 

 ing them by legislation. But I will draw your attention to the advisability of 

 cultivating forests on places suitable for the supply of water, and especially 

 along water courses and lakes, as means of purifying these, preventing too great 



*A fungus or mould. 



