172 EFFECTS OF FORESTS ON SPRINGS. 



the recent re-wooding of the prairies, but the plantations thus far made 

 are not yet sufficiently extensive to pi'oduce an appreciable effect of 

 this nature ; and besides, while young trees have covered some of the 

 prairies, the destruction of the forest has been continued perhaps in a 

 greater pi-oportion in other parts of the basin of the river. A more 

 plausible opinion is that the substitution of ground that is cultivated, 

 and consequently spongy and absorbent, for the natural soil of 

 the prairies, has furnished a reservoir for the rains which are 

 absorbed by the earth and carried gradually to the river by sub- 

 terranean flow, instead of running off rapidly from the surface, or, as 

 is more probable, instead of evaporating or being taken up by the 

 vigorous herbaceous vegetation which covers the natural prairie. 



" A phenomenon so contrary to common experience, as would be a 

 permanent increase in the waters of a great river, will not be 

 accepted without the most convincing proofs. The present greater 

 facility of navigation may be attributed to improvements in the 

 model of the boats, to the removing of sand-banks and other impedi- 

 ments to the flow of the waters, or to the confining of these waters in 

 a narrower channel, by extending the embankments of the river, or 

 to yet other causes." 



A case similar to that occurring on the Wolfspring was reported 

 to me by Mr S. Van Reenan, of Constantia. The site of the cele- 

 brated vineyard so long in possession of his family, measuring some 

 45 acres, or 22| Morgens, was when granted to his forefather a 

 forest. There was then on it an abundance of water, such abundance 

 that though there was no spring on the property there was a large 

 reservoir and large pond in front of the house, supplied and main- 

 tained by a stream of water, at least four inches in diameter. But 

 when the forest was felled, and the vineyard planted in its place, the 

 supply of water gradually diminished till it was reduced to a supply 

 one inch in diameter, and ultimately to a supply measuring only a 

 quarter of an inch. 



On the same ground he afterwards formed a plantation, to the 

 destruction of which by fire I have elsewhere had occasion to refer. 



In regard to this he informed me that on the abolition of slavery, 

 probably about 1838, he feared he should not be able to keep so 

 much vineyard under cultivation as he had previously done, and he 

 employed several of his slaves in sowing seeds of the Cluster pine and 

 of the Stone pine {Pinus pinaster, and Pinus pinea). In one night, 

 specified by him to me as the night on which the " Vulcan" entered 



