1889.] Results of a Mission to South Africa. 15 



are obstructed by the sheet of lava, so that it is unable to flow down 

 this inclined plane and all that is necessary is to find a suitable spot 

 where this natural dam can be utilised with the view of yielding a 

 permanent water supply for a large area of country, and without 

 doubt it is of the highest importance that these dykes, when they 

 hold back water, should be used in a proper and practical manner. If 

 this be done, a water supply is assured for the benefit of the country. 

 Now there is one other matter in the way of regulation of water 

 supply which strikes me as important, and it is this, that I have 

 observed in England the extraordinary fact that in the early morning 

 in winter, soon after the frozen dew drops from the trees 

 fall upon the ground you find accumulated beneath the tree a mass of 

 material like hail, which is a measure of the quantity of moisture 

 which the tree condensed from the air on the previous evening, and I 

 have observed that when the air has been saturated with moisture, that the 

 tree condenses so much that the water drains away from the tree in a 

 continuous rill. If a tree then condenses moisture in this way, the 

 moisture necessarily helps to saturate the rock beneath, and I take it 

 as a fact beyond all question, after looking over various parts of the 

 Colony, that so far as I am aware, without restriction, everywhere the 

 farmer allows his trees to be barked, with the result that the trees die and 

 the whole of the moisture to the land which the trees have been in the 

 habit of drawing, is ended from that moment. The trees no longer 

 possesses leaves which had caused the condensation of rain. The 

 farmer is prepared to sell his trees as a matter of business, and is 

 prepared to sell as many as seventy trees for the price of a single 

 sheep, the consequence being that if you take it, at this rate, in ten 

 years 700 trees have gone, and ithe moisture has gone with them. 

 Well, the land has been destroyed in this way by the ruthless, 

 thoughtless cutting down of trees, and unless some law to the contrary 

 be enforced, many parts of the country will be converted into the 

 ruinous condition in which you find it round about Colesberg, where 

 I was told the country was formerly clothed with the wild olive, and 

 there were so many trees you could not see a bare rock at any time, 

 whilst now all is barren. Wherever trees are planted water will 

 accumulate, and once this fact is fully recognised my belief is that the 

 public spirit of the people of the Colony would enforce the planting 

 of trees as a condition of universal prosperity. 



Now these are the subjects upon which I have been engaged; bones, 

 coal, gold, and water supply, these were the four great ideas in which 

 the observations I have made seemed to gather into a focus. I came 

 out seeking nothing but bones, I am now quite enthusiastic with 

 regard to the condition and welfare of your country, and I am so far 

 enthusiastic, that I venture to say, if this country is to prosper 



