fidCALVPTdS TEfiES. 49 



the last pasture parched, and the last waterpool dried 

 up, great atmospheric changes would send the rain- 

 clouds over the thirsty land with all the vehemence 

 of precipitation, and would convert dry creeks into 

 foaming torrents, or inundate with furious floods the 

 very pastures over which the carcasses of the famished 

 cattle and sheep were strewn about ! Picture to your- 

 selves the ruined occupant of the soil, hardly able 

 to escape with his bare life from the sudden scenes of 

 these tragic disasters ! Fortunately, as yet such ex- 

 treme events may not have happened commonly ; yet 

 they did occur, and pronounced their lessons impress- 

 ively. Let it be well considered that it is not alone 

 the injudicious overstocking of many a pasture, or 

 the want of water - storage, but frequently the very 

 want of rain itself for years in extensive woodless 

 districts, which renders occupation of many of our 

 inland tracts so precarious. Let it also not be forgot- 

 ten how, without a due proportion of woodland, no 

 country can be great and prosperous ! Remember 

 how whole mountain districts of Southern Europe be- 

 came, with the fall of the forests, utterly depopulated; 

 how the gushes of wide currents washed away all ara- 

 ble soil, while the bordering flat land became buried 

 in debris ; how its rivers became filled with sediment, 

 -while the population of the lowland were at the same 

 time involved in poverty and ruin I Let us recollect 

 that in many places the remaining alpine inhabitant 

 had to toil with his very fuel for many miles up to the 

 once wooded hills, where barrenness and bleakness 

 would perhaps no longer allow a tree to vegetate 1 It 

 should be borne in mind that the productiveness of 

 cereal fieltis is often increased at the rate of fully fifty 



