224 AMERICAN FORESTRY 



its superiority consists in the great process is reversed and thin deposits 

 length and permanence of the record have recently grown coarsen This re- 

 and in the unmistakable character of the cent anomalous change in the regimen 

 data it furnishes to one skilled in read- of these rivers can only be due to the 

 ing such a record. denudation and erosion that have re- 

 The meteorologist depends on gage suited from mans activities in the re- 

 readings of flood heights, made by man gion The nvers of the region have re- 

 and often incomplete, the best of which cently changed their regimen and floods 

 in this country extend back for only a have become higher and mare violent 

 few score years and in Europe for only else sands, cobbles, and boulders would 

 a few hundred years. The geologist not have been strewn during the past 

 depends upon records thousands of decade over the hner alluvial accumula- 

 vears in length made during all the long tions of many previous centuries. 

 ages in which the valley and the flood Finally, to say as Professor Moore 

 pfain were formino- and written in the does in his summary, that the run-off is 

 materials of the flood plain and in the not materially affected by any other 

 width, slopes, and other features of the factor than precipitation is ridiculous, 

 valley. Beside these records the Jength 

 of even the longest meteorological ga,ge 

 records becomes insignificant. 



The flood plain deposits that have been " T HE INFLUENCE OF FORESTS ON 



built up by the ages of slow flood activ- CLIMATE A ND ON FLOODS" 

 ity reveal the character of the floods by 



which they were formed. If these have A Review of Prof. Willis L. Moore's Report 

 been gentle, the deposits will consist of 

 fine alluvium ; if they have been violent, 

 the deposits in a region such as the 



Southern Appalachians, will be corres- IT MAY be well to preface this dis- 



pondingly coarser and will consist of 1 cussion by a brief reference to the 



sands, cobbles, or boulders. If the proper methods of scientific investiga- 



sands, cobbles, and boulders that have tion, because these are often forgot- 



been repeatedly strewn over their flood- ten, even by those who lay claim to 



plains in the last few years by such scientific acquirements, and because it 



streams as the Watauga, the Doe, the will be shown in what follows that in 



Nolichucky, the Catawba, and other the paper under consideration such has 



southern rivers had been the kind of been the case. 



material these rivers had for ages been In the investigation of scientific phe- 

 accustomed to deposit, their entire flood nomena two methods alone may be em- 

 plains would be composed of such coarse ployed : The inductive and the deduc- 

 materials instead of being, as they are, tive. 



of fine rich sandy loam or clay. Had If the relations between two phe- 



they at any time in their past history nomena are to be studied by the induc- 



been accustomed to build such coarse tive method, the process is to collect 



material into their floodplains that mate- observations, or to make experiments, in 



rial would be there to-day as a mute wit- which one of these phenomena is varied, 



ness of the fact. It is only of recent while the effects upon the other are ob- 



years, however, that they have formed served. The method consists in accu- 



such coarse deposits because only in re- initiating a sufficient number of such 



cent years have their floods had the observations and experiments, and from 



height, velocity, and power to enable them drawing generalizations. It is a 



them to carry such coarse materials, statistical method a reasoning from 



The normal change in the regimen of a particulars to general principles, 



river as the ages pass is such as to make In the deductive method the process 



its flood plain deposits grow constantly is reversed ; starting from general prin- 



finer. In these rivers, however, this ciples all conclusions are deduced from 



