EFFECTS OF FOREST TEGETATIOJf 02^^ CLIMATE. 211 



observers and by hydraulic eugiueers, that floods are sometimes 

 occasioned by the destruction of forests, as I have intimated 

 already in allusion to Dr. Bidie, who holds the opinion that 

 under certain conditions such clearings greatly extended will 

 produce eflEects far beyond their immediate limits. 



The peculiar vegetation of Australia, its geological structure, 

 and the nature of its rocks and soils, may seem to be exceptional ; 

 but its droughts and floods have much in common with those of 

 other countries where the physical conditions are not widely 

 difl'erent : and even should our tentative conjectures as to periodicity 

 ever become established facts, we should have then something 

 more, and that something more reliable, to rest upon in our 

 endeavours to benefit the natural conditions of our climate. The 

 very close resemblance between it and that of Palestine justifies 

 a brief quotation from Dr. Tristram's work on the '• Natural 

 History of the Bible." He says, " There is every probability 

 that when the country was well wooded and terraced, and those 

 terraces clad with olive trees, the spring rains were more copious 

 than at present. Many light clouds which now pass over from the 

 west would then be attracted and precipitated in rain over the 

 highlands. At present, without any efl'ort to utilize the bountiful 

 supplies of Providence, three-fourths of the rainfall are wholly 

 wasted." (p. 83.) 



Is not this equally true respecting even those parts of this 

 'Colony that enjoy the greatest abundance of the "former and 

 latter rains" in their season? 



Ought it to be allowed, that in addition to neglect, there 

 should be added wilful waste ? 



It has been my privilege at one time or another during my 

 various journeyings to visit the sources of almost every important 

 river and stream in this Colony, ana it was not without some 

 dread of the future that I have seen the possibility of the 

 country becoming greatly deteriorated as to its water supply. 

 At a time when the whole community is, or ought to be, excited 

 as to such supply, would it not be wise in the Government and 

 Legislature to make provision against wilful destruction of the 

 woods and forests that border the courses of our rivers ; to 

 prevent clearing and ring-barking, except under regulations, the 

 latter, as some times practised, being one of the most suicidal of 

 schemes for the injury of posterity, as will be found, perhaps, at 

 no distant date ? 



It may be said that our clearings bear but a small proportion 

 to the timber that is left ; but the difference increases in a 

 geometrical ratio, and as population continues to arrive and 

 spread, the land will gradually lose its protection of forest 

 vegetation, and become year after year more and more arid and 

 waterless. This, let us remark, is independent of eflects from 



