EFFECTS OF CLEAEINGS IN CENTEAL ASIA,' ETC. 309 



anthorities to cat down a single tree, and the Turks enforce the same law. There may 

 be — there are differences of opinion as to the physical laws by which the perpetuation 

 of forests secures rain and preserves moisture, but there is no difference as to the fact 

 that in the devastation of the forest on the hill-side the usual and regular flow of water 

 is greatly diminished. * * » No record exists of the destruction of these forests on 

 any occasion except once in 1823, when the Janizaries were destroyed by Sultan Mah- 

 naoud. It was a question of life or death, and to drive the remnant of them out of 

 these forests they were set on tire, and miles of trees, hundreds of years old, were con- 

 sumed, and the fleeing Janizaries were shot. 



The flow of waters interrupted by this casualty was restored as the 

 hills became again clothed with trees. This example, so far as relates 

 to the diminution of supply as the sheltering woodlands are cut away, 

 has been often exemplified in cases where a city derived its supply from 

 open brooks, as at Albany, N. Y., where the failure has been quite re- 

 cently supplied by erecting costly works for pumping water from the 

 Hudson Eiver, instead of adopting the cheaper and more rational 

 remedy of buying the light, sandy lands whose drainage supplied the 

 brooks, and planting them with woods. 



Central Asia. 



The desolation in eastern conntries from neglect of agriculture and 

 improvident clearings has often been cited, and abundant instances are 

 referred to in the admirable work by our countryman, George P. Marsh, 

 entitled Man and Nature, and in the later volume of the same, entitled 

 The Earth as Modified hy Human Action. Without quoting from these, 

 we will simply present an item recently published in the Revue des Eaux 

 et Forets (March, 1876, p. 93), which gives a strong illustration of this 

 kind: 



The Khanate of Bucharia presents a striking example of the consequences brought 

 upon a country by clearings. Within a period of 30 years, this was one of the most fer- 

 tile regions of Central Asia, a country which when well wooded and watered was a 

 terrestrial paradise.i But within the last 25yearsamaniaof clearing has seized upon the 

 inhabitants, and all the great forests have been cut away, and the little that remained 

 was ravaged by fire during a civil war. The consequences were not long in following, 

 and have transformed this country into a kind of arid desert. The water-courses are 

 dried up, and the irrigating canals empty. The moving sands of the desert being no 

 longer restrained by barriers of forests, are every day gaining upon the land, and will 

 finish by transforming it into a desert as desolate as the solitudes that separate it firom 

 Khiva. 



Central America. 



The Ausland gives some curious reports upon the effect produced by 

 the destruction of forests in certain countries in Central America, and 



1 Malte-Brun, an author of highest authority in matters relating to geography, in de- 

 scribing this country some 50 years ago, says : " The finest provinces of Tartary remain 

 tobe described, being generally known under the nanie of Great Bucharia. * » » The 

 most noted and fertile of all the provinces is that of Sogd, so named from the river 

 that flows through it. ' For eight days ' says Ibn Hankal, ' we may travel in the country 

 of Sogd, and not be out of one delicious garden. On every side, villages, rich corn- 

 fields, fruitful orchards, country houses, gardens, meadows, interspersed by rivulets, 

 reservoirs, and canals, present a most lively picture of industry and happiness.' The 

 rich valley of Sogd produces so great an abundance of grapes, melons, pears, and apples, 

 that they were exported to Persia, and even to Hindostan." 



M. Malte-Brun, again citing from this eastern geographer, says : " I have often been 

 at Kohendiz, the ancient capital of Bucharia, I have cast my eyes all around, and 

 never have I seen a verdure more fresh or abundant, or of wider extent. This green 

 carpeting mingled in the horizon with the azure of the skies. The simple verdure 

 served as a sort of ornamental offset to the towns contained in it. Numerous country- 

 seats decorated the simplicity of the fields. Hence, I am not surprised that of all the 

 inhabitants of Korasan and Maweralnahr, none attain a more advanced age than those 

 of Bukhara." {Malte-Brun'a UniversaLGeography, i, 470.) 



