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 droughts ; so that, all 

 through the 18tli century, 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 lS,kes 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, ivithout any 

 doubt, to be ascribed to human agency alone. It is recorded of these, that 



