26 Transactions.— Miscellaneous. 
Again, the Island of St. Helena offers a striking example of the effects 
of forest denudation upon its climate and rainfall. When it was first 
discovered in 1502, the island was covered with timber, which in many 
instances came down to the water's edge, and innumerable rivulets height- 
ened the verdure of the land. But, shortly after its colonization, the 
inhabitants went recklessly to work to destroy the trees, and this was 
followed by a succession of severe and destructive drougnts; so that, all 
through the 18th eentury, there were almost periodical visitations of these 
scourges, occasioning ruinous losses of cattle and crops. The East India 
Company, however, having adopted energetic measures for the replanting 
of the island with the cluster pine and other hardy forest trees, the result 
has been that the annual rainfall has become equal to that of England, 
and that it is spread almost evenly over the year, while droughts are 
altogether unknown. 
Similar effects have been recorded with respect to the Island of Mauritius, 
in which a steady diminution of the rainfall has taken place since the destruc- 
tion of no less than 70,000 acres of forests, or about one-sixth of the entire 
area of the island. This work of destruction was accomplished in the ten 
years from 1852 to 1862, with the following results as reported by Mr. 
Meldrum, the Director of the Observatory at that island :—'* In no former 
year of the period of fourteen years did such floods occur as in 1861 and 
1866, or such severe droughts as in 1865 and 1866. Nor is this all ; for 
the Mauritius, which was formerly a ‘sanatorium’ for British officers 
invalided in India, is subject to deadly epidemics, owing to the lowering 
of some lakes and the complete desiccation of others. Malaria has thus 
been generated, and cholera and fevers have followed. Latterly, however, 
an extensive system of tree-planting has been commenced, with the best 
results 
On this subject also, Dr. Hooker, in a letter to Lord Kimberley, who 
was at that time Secretary of State for the Colonies, wrote as follows :— 
‘ The mischief already done in Mauritius and various West Indian islands 
is so widely spread (being in some, indeed, irreparable), and the feeling of 
the colonists against any interference on the part of the Government is apt 
to be so determined, that I venture to press upon your lordship my own 
opinion as to the urgency of active steps being taken in the case of an island 
so beautiful, and at present so fertile, as Ceylon. I have lately received an 
account of the deterioration of the climate of some of the Leeward Islands, 
which affords a melancholy confirmation of what I have urged above. The 
contrast between neighbouring islands similarly situated is most striking, 
while the sad change which has befallen the smaller ones is, without any 
doubt, to be ascribed to human agency alone. It is recorded of these, that 
