METEOROLOGY. 507 



Ist. That extensive destruction of forests lessens the quantity of 

 running water in a country. 



2d That it is impossible to say precisely whether this diminution 

 is due to a less mean annual quantity of rain, or to more active 

 evaporation, or to these two effects combined. 



3d. That the quantity of running water does not appear to have 

 suffered any diminution or change in countries which have known 

 nothing of agricultural improvement. 



4th. That independently of preserving running streams, by oppo- 

 sing an obstacle to evaporation, forests economize and regulate their 

 flow. 



5th. That agriculture established in a dry country, not covered 

 with forests, dissipates an additional portion of its running water. 



6th. That clearings of forest land of limited extent may cause 

 the disappearance of particular springs, without our being therefore 

 authorized to conclude that the mean annual quantity of rain has 

 been diminished. 



7th, and lastly. That in assuming the meteorological data collect- 

 ed in intertropical countries, it may be presumed that clearing off 

 the forests does actually diminish the mean annual quantity of rain 

 which falls.* 



 These meteorological observations are highly interesting, and worthy of every 

 consideration. That unforesting a country makes it absolutely drier, seems unques- 

 tionable ; but whether that be in consequence of less rain falling, or of that which 

 falls going further, making more show, cannot be easily determined. It does not seem 

 very legitimate to decide, that because a country is covered with wood, therefore it is 

 wet : the converse of that proposition appears much more probable— viz., that because 

 a country is wet, therefore it is covered with trees. There is one part of the ocean 

 which is called by mariners " The Rains ;" because it rains there almoat ceaselessly, 

 as it does in the province of Choco : but " The Rains" has no forests to account for 

 its dripping sky. Did that region consist of dry land instead of salt-water, then doubt- 

 less its surface would be covered, as that of Choco is, with an impenetrable forest 

 The subject is adverted to here, however, not to discuss the general question, but to 

 throw out the suggestion that under the hand of man, the soil and even the climate of 

 our immense Australian possessions might possibly be improved. Drought is the 

 grand enemy of Australian settlers ; and the country is generally barren of wood. 



Governors, district governments, and farmers, and all who are interested in the pros- 

 perity of the colony, surely ought to encourage, by every possible means, the growth 

 of the taller trees and shrubs that are indigenous to the country. 



Expeditions might be made once or twice a year, at the proper season, for scattenn^ 

 or planting the seeds of these trees or shrubs. Could every knoll within a hundred 

 miles of Sidney be seen crowned with a thick screen of leafy trees, there can be little 

 doubt but that the rain which falls would be economized ; and that the beds of the 

 rivers, instead of being dry for eight or nine months, would be occupied all the yetti 

 round by at least a moderate stream of water.— Eno. Ed. 



THK END. 



