EFFECTS OF FOEEST VEGETATION ON CLIMATE. 209 



forming springB." Again : " Major Sankey is of opinion tliat 

 the original form of tlie hills may be permanently altered. The 

 only remedy seems to he to preserve a broad fringe of trees and 

 bushes above the road. Equally disastrous consequences arise 

 from clearing below the roads which pass along a mountain 

 side." * * * " Major Sankey, therefore, strongly urges 

 the necessity of preserving a belt of jungle both on the upper and 

 lower slopes of a mountain road. For the last twelve years a 

 system of forest conserving has been established in the Madras 

 Presidency, under the able aud zealous superintendence of Dr. 

 Cleghorn, with a view mainly to the preservation of valuable 

 timber and of firewood, and to the retention of belts of forest 

 near the sources and along the courses of streams. The con- 

 struction of public works is by far the most important part of 

 our mission in India, and their completion will form the chief, 

 if not the only, justification of our occupation of that vast 

 empire. As a branch of the Public Works Department, a forest 

 agency is very necessary, both for the supervision of felling and 

 planting on a proper system, so as to ensure an adequate supply 

 of timber for public works and of fuel for railways, and for the 

 conservancy of forests, to obviate the disastrous effects of indis- 

 criminate felling on bridges, roadways, and irrigation works. 



"It must be remembered that one of the three products, the 

 cultivation of which is now extending so rapidly in the hill- 

 districts, will have the effect in a few years of supplying the 

 place and performing the functions of the original forest. The 

 beautiful foliage of the cinchona-trees, which after four years of 

 growth are 20 feet high, will be as effective as the ti-ees they 

 have supplanted in preventing evaporation, regulating drainage, 

 and receiving the moisture which is wrung out of the passing- 

 clouds. * * 



" In the end of 1866 there were upwards of 1,500,000 cinchona- 

 plants in the Government plantations on the Neilgherry hills, 

 besides many others under Cultivation by companies and private 

 individuals. It is the intention of Government to plant 1,200 

 acres with cinchona-trees, and to keep another 1,000 acres as a 

 reserve for further planting, if it should be considered desirable 

 hereafter wvpw%=4&^4?^^ 



" Still many square miles will be bare which once presented an 

 unbroken surface of foliage. The forests will to a great extent 

 disappear, and it is necessary that some other agency should be 

 found to perform their duties, which are those of regulating and 

 economising the drainage of the rain-water. *' * * # 



" It must be remembered, however, that the destruction of 

 forests is very far from having reached its limit, that the rapid 

 surface-drainage caused by it already effects much mischief in 



