PLANTING ON MAURITIUS, 127 



were cleared, to gain space for sugar cultivation, the rainfall 

 diminished ; the rivers dwindled down to muddy streams ; the water 

 became stagnant in cracks, crevices, and natural hollows, while the 

 equable temperature of the Island entirely changed ; drought was 

 experienced in the midst of the ocean, and thunder showers were 

 rarely any longer witnessed. The lagoons, marshes, and swamps, 

 along the sea-board were no longer filled with water, but gave off 

 noxious gases ; while the river waters became impure from various 

 refuse. After a violent inundation in February 1865, followed by a 

 period of drought, fever of a low type set in. Against this the 

 remedies employed in ordinary febrile cases proved utterly valueless. 

 From the waterless sides of the lagoons pestilential malaria arose. 

 Exposed to this the labourers fell on the field, and in some instances 

 died within a few hours. Scarcity of food among the destitute 

 classes, and inadequate sewage arrangements, predisposed also to the 

 dreadful effect at the time. It is alleged, and maintained, that 

 marshes should either be drained out completely, or kept constantly 

 submerged. And Dr Rogers insists that, for sanitary reasons alone, 

 the plateaux and high lands of Mauritius must be replanted with 

 trees. 



To what extent this may have been done, and with what results, 

 remain to be seen. 



In Chambers' Journal it was mentioned in the beginning of 1875, 

 apparently on the authority of the transactions of the Royal Society 

 of the Mauritius, that with a view to check the increasing dryness of 

 the climate 800,000 trees had been planted, and 150,000 seed holes 

 prepared on barren mountain slopes and other waste places. And 

 we have the following statement in regard to what appears to have 

 been a prior application of the remedies proposed : — " The hills were 

 again planted with trees, and the rivers and streams resumed their 

 former dimensions." * 



*A letter from Mr A. St. John, who had given attention to the subject, and had been 

 asked by Mr Fox Wilson for testimony which he might adduce in bis paper " On the 

 Desiccation of the Basin of the Orange River," in support of views held by them both, 

 has been put into my hands. In this it is said;— "It is Thornton, I believe, in hia 

 • History of India,' who gives an account of the drying up of the springs in the 

 Mauritius ; and the Journal of the Indian Archipelago, published by Logan at 



Singapore, supplies information about the Island of Penang I am 



confident of the information retained in my memory, though I may not always be able 

 to point out the source from which it was obtained ; for example, I am perfectly sm-e 

 that the writer, who as I have stated I think is Thornton, that gave the history of our 

 conquest of the Mauritius, observes, that, when we obtained possession, our country- 

 mea thought it absurd that the beautiful land on the summits and slopes of the 



