1150 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [8] 



act tlie hurtful influence of the cutting down of the forests. The forests 

 with their rich beds of moss and dry leaves were the natural water 

 regulators, catching the rain and gradually, but continuously, returning 

 it in the shape of springs and exhalations. In this manner they pro- 

 tected us, to a certain degree, against the entire drying out of the 

 brooks and against devastating inundations. Large ponds may well 

 serve as reservoirs, and partially make up for the general devastation of 

 the forests, by receiving during inundations a considerable portion of 

 the turbid water, by letting the fertile mud settle in them, thus bene- 

 fiting both the fish and the crops, which are during some years to be 

 raised in the ponds, and finally by gradually giving up the purer water 

 to the lower country and thus proving a blessing in many ways. 



