DISTRIBUTION OF RAINFALL, 269 



Upon the borders of Lake Champlain, the sugar-maple, the balsam-fir, 

 the Virginian poplar, are equally remarkable. 



" In the environs of the Falls of Niagara the t ulip-tree, the red 

 cedar, and the Canadian yew grow in great abundance ; whilst near 

 to Kingston, which is only seven miles from the cataracts, an immense 

 forest, composed of horse-chestnut trees, has taken possession of the 

 soil to the exclusion of every other kind, 



" Around Bloomfield, not far from Lake Canandagua, magnificent 

 forests of oak furnish the colonists with a valuable wood, and embel- 

 lish the slopes of the hills. 



Throughout the district specified we have a rain-fall of 44, 40, 36, 

 32, and on one very limited spot so little as 28. 



" When we advance into Canada, forest vegetation gradually 

 dwindles, and at length becomes quite stunted. We no longer meet 

 with any thing but little firs, dwarf birches, and lank poplars. This 

 is observed to the north of Quebec, and of the parallel of the Isle of 

 Manitoulin." 



Within the line indicated we have a rainfall of from 32 to 44, the 

 latter being the rainfall at St. Johns, New Brunswick ; falling to 40 

 and 36 as we come nearer to the St. Laurence. 



Thus does it appear that every observation made in North America 

 seems to tend to show a general accordance between the distribution 

 of the rainfall and of forests. 



Something similar may be observed in the distribution of forests in 

 South Africa, In the Colony of the Cape of Gooa Hope all the existing 

 forests are found on mountain slopes following the convex curve of 

 the sea coast from the mouth of the Orange River on the west to 

 Port Natal on the east. The trees are comparatively few in number 

 on the Cedar-Bergen range, in Clanwilliam, but so numerous were 

 they formerly as to have suggested the name given to the mountains ; 

 they are more numerous on the Table Mountain range near Capetown ; 

 they appear in greatest abundance in the districts of the Knysna and 

 George ; but they abound also in Kafi'raria and in the Trans-Kei 

 territory. This curve encloses an extensive inland district almost 

 destitute of trees, bounded on the north by a district crossing the 

 continent beyond the colonies, in which trees are more numerous, 

 connecting the forest lands of the east with forests on the west coast 

 further to the north. 



Co- extensive with these forests, there is what may be called com- 



