EFFECTS OF FORESTS ON SPRINGS. 175 



opposition to the forest regulations; and the cutting of wood, together 

 with the abuse of pasturage, had converted the forest into an immense 

 waste, so that this great property would hardly pay the cost ^of 

 guarding it and afford a meagre supply of wood for its inhabitants. 



*' While the forest was thus ruined and the soil denuded, the waters 

 after each heavy rain swept down through the valley, bringing with 

 them great quantities of gravel, the debris of which still encumbers 

 the channel of this stream. The violence of these floods was some- 

 times so great that they were compelled to stop the machines for 

 some time. But in the summer time another inconvenience made its 

 appeai-ance. Little by little the drought extended, the flow of waters 

 became insignificant, the mills stood idle, or could be run only 

 occasionally for a short time. 



" About 1840 the municipal authorities began to give information to 

 the population relative to their true interests, and under the protection 

 of a better supervision the work of replanting has been well managed, 

 and the forest is to-day in successful growth. 



" In proportion as the replanting progressed, the precarious use of 

 the mills ceased, and the regime of the water-courses was greatly 

 modified. They now no longer swelled into sudden and violent floods, 

 compelling the machines to stop, but the rise did not begin until six 

 or eight hours after the rains began. They rose steadily to their 

 maximum, and then subsided in the same manner. In short, the mills 

 were no longer obliged to stop work, and the water was always enough 

 to run two fulling machines, and sometimes three. 



" This example is remarkable in this, that all the other circumstances 

 had remained the same, and therefore we can only attribute to the 

 reforesting the changes that occurred, namely, diminution of the flood 

 at the time of rain, and an increase in its flow during other times." 



From a report made by Henry J. Wisner, United States Consul at 

 Sonneberg, in the Department of State, in November, 1873, the river 

 Elbe between the years 1787 and 1837, a period of half a century, 

 diminished at Attenbruecke, in Hanover, ten feet in depth, as a direct 

 result of the cutting off of forests in the region where the tributaries 

 have their origin. 



In 1873, there appeared in the Zeitschrift des osterr. higenieur 

 iind Architecteu Vereim, a paper by Herr Gustav Wex, Counsellor 

 of State, and Director-in-Chief of works undertaken for the regu- 

 lating of the flow of the Danube, " On the Diminution of Water in 

 Streams and Rivers, accompanied by Occasional Inundations in 



