Pepperoorne. — On the Influence of Forests on Climate and Rainfall. 25 



causes the sm-face-soil to be washed off the hills (which have been denuded 

 of then- timber) and carried into the valleys, from whence it is swept away 

 by calamitous inundations into the sea. 



The x3reservation of the forests of a country is, therefore, one of the first 

 duties of an enlightened Government ; for, as Professor Macarel, a French 

 writer of some note, observes : " All the wants of life are closely related to 

 their conservation : agriculture, architectm-e, and almost all the industries, 

 seek therein their ahment and resources, which nothing can replace. 

 Necessary as are the forests to the individual, they are not less so to the 

 State ; their existence is, of itself, of incalculable benefit to the countries 

 that possess them, as well in the protection and feeding of the springs and 

 rivers, as in their prevention against the washing away of the soil upon 

 mountains, and in the beneficial and healthy influence which they exert 

 upon the atmosphere. Large forests deaden and break the force of heavy 

 winds that beat out the seeds and injure the growth of plants ; they form 

 reservoirs of moistm^e ; they shelter the soil of the fields and upon hill- 

 sides, where the rain-water, checked in its descent by the thousand obstacles 

 they present by their roots and by the trunks of trees, has time to filter into 

 the soil, and only finds its way by slow degrees to the rivers. They regu- 

 late, in a certain degree, the flow of the waters and the hygrometrical con- 

 dition of the atmosphere, and then- destruction accordingly increases the 

 duration of droughts and gives rise to the injuries of inundations." 



The truth of these observations admits of no doubt, and instances may 



be multiplied to prove their accuracy. Thus, the island of Cyprus was, in 



ancient times, famed for its fertflity when its hills were covered wit-h timber ; 



but of late years, and since the denudation of her forests, the bare and 



thirsty soil seems, as it were, to repel the rain-bearing clouds, and the 



island has become the prey of periodic drought and disease. During the 



three consecutive years from 1859 to 1861, no rain fell at Cyprus, and the 



inhabitants migrated en masse to the adjacent shores of Syria. Malaria 



appears to have become chronic in the island ; but since its recent occupation 



by the British, an extensive system of tree-planting has been commenced 



under the auspices of Sir Garnet Wolseley, who, in a recent letter to the First 



Lord of the Admiralty, writes : " I am now planting 20,000 Eucalyptus trees 



'^01 uiic ''nd *wo years' growth, and even supposing that one-half of these 



die, I shall have made a good start towards replenishing the island with 



timber."* 



* All who have made themselyes acquainted with the French colonization of Algeria, 

 must admire the public spirit displayed during the last twenty years in respect to the 

 " reboisement,'" or re-timbering of the country, chiefly with the Eucalyptus globulus and 

 other varieties of this tree — a measure which has been found to be equally effective both 

 on sanitary and economic grounds. 



