GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 15 



that these ideas are not purely theoretical, and that the influence of trees 

 on climate aud humidity has been investigated by some of the ablest 

 scientific men in this country and Europe. A French savant, M. Bons- 

 singault, states that in the region comprised between the Bay of Cupica 

 and the Gulf of Guayaquil, which is covered with immense forests, the 

 rains are almost continual, and that the mean temperature of the humid 

 country rises hardly to 80° Fahrenheit. The author of "Travels in 

 Bulgaria" says that in Malta rain has become rare since the forests have 

 been cleared away to make room for the growth of cotton, and that, at 

 the time of his visit, in October 1841, not a drop of rain had fallen for 

 three years. The terrible droughts in Cape Verde Islands are attributed 

 to the destruction of the forests. 



, The wooded surface of the island of Saint Helena has extended consid- 

 erably within a few years, and it is said that the rain is now double in 

 quantity what it was during the residence of ISTapoleon, A German 

 author remarks : " In wooded countries the atmosphere is generally 

 humid, and rain and dew fertilize the, soil. As the lightning-rod ab- 

 stracts the electric fluid from the stormy sky, so the forest abstracts to 

 itself the rain from the clouds, which in falling refreshes not it alone, 

 but extends its benefits to the neighboring fields." 



The forest presenting a considerable surface for evaporation gives to 

 its own soil and the adjacent ground an abundant and enlivening dew. 

 Forests, in a word, exert in the interior of continents an influence like 

 that of the sea on the climates of islands and of coasts ; both water the 

 soil and thereby insure its fertility. Sir John F. W. Herschel says that 

 the influences unfavorable to rain are absence of vegetation, in warm 

 climates, and especially of trees. He considers this one of the reasons 

 of the extreme aridity of Spain. Babinet, in his lectures, says : "A few 

 years ago it never rained in Lower Egypt. The constant north winds, 

 which almost exclusively prevail there, passed without obstruction over 

 a surface bare of vegetation ; but since the making of plantations an 

 obstacle has been created which retards the current of air from the 

 north. The air thus checked accumulates, dilutes, cools, and yields 

 rain." 



I might cite many examples from the African deserts how the planting 

 of palm-trees is redeeming those barren sands. 



Much might also be said in regard to the influence of woods in pro- 

 tecting the soil and promoting the increase in number and the flow of 

 springs, but all 1 wish is to show the possibility of the power of man to 

 restore to these now treeless and almost rainless prairies the primitive 

 forests aud the humidity which accompanies them. 



The counties of Otoe, Nemaha, and Eichardson contain more timber- 

 land than any other portion of the State, antl the aggressive character 

 of the patches of woodland can be seen everywhere. Hundreds of acres 

 have been covered over with a fine healthy growth of hickory, walnut, 

 oak, soft maple, coffee-beau, bass-w^ood, &c., within the past ten or twelve 

 years, since the fires have been kept away and protection afforded the 

 young trees by the settlements. 



In the more southern connties the success in planting trees and in 

 raising fruits, especially the smaller kinds, is even more marked than 

 north of the Platte. All kinds of garden-vegetables grow better in 

 Nebraska than in any other region with which I am acquainted. The 

 crops, when not injured by the grasshopper, are looking very fine at this 

 time. The corn has escaped so far and is iiressing forward with great 

 rapidity. Up to the 1st of July I did not see any grasshoppers, except 

 within a radius of four or five miles around Nebraska City. There they 



