fegiona destitute of all vegetable growth, rain is unknown, as in the' Stfoffg 

 lines of the poet : 



" AMc's fcarren sand, 



Where naOglit can grow because itraineth not, 

 And where no rain can fall to Wesa the land. 

 Because naught groweth there." 



Humboldt, speaking of the effect Of removing forests, says : " In felling 

 the trees which covered the crowns and slopes of the mountains, men in all 

 climates seem to be bringing upon future generations, two calamities at once 

 •i— a want of fuel, and a scarcity of water." Herschel enumerates among the 

 influenees unfavorable to rain, '' absence of vegetation in warm climates, and 

 especially of trees. This is no doubt one of the reasons of the ex'.reme arid- 

 ity of Spain." Aridity and barrenness, indeed, is the general characteristie 

 of that whole country. The insane folly which has caused the people to 

 denude the country of trees, has modified no doubt unfavorably, a climate 

 already too dry, and strikes with astonishment and horror one new from the 

 delicious freshness and verdufe of England and our eastern States. The 

 Spaniard, and above all, the Castilian, has an inate hatred of a tree ; if he 

 does not cut it down for fire-wood, he outs it down because it harbors birds 

 that eat his grain, f'orests and brush alike disappear before the inevitable 

 axe, until, as often occurs in Castile, the traveler may look for leagues over 

 the country without seeing a tree or bush to break its uniformity. This fool- 

 ish extinction of the forests has been the source of innumerable evils to the 

 country — evils which are continually acting upon and augmenting each other. 

 Unrestrained by any vegetation, the rain water rushes down the steep sides 

 of the hills and over the plains,., wearing them into deep gullies, and carrying 

 off the finer and most valuable parts of the soil. The rivers, terrible and 

 dangerous torrents in times of rain, shrink and dry up almost immediately 

 afterwards, and the water, for which the country is gaping, hurried off to the 

 sea, becomes lost f6r all useful purposes. Extreme aridity of the' atmosphere, 

 continually diminishing rainfall, and impoverishing the country, are but con- 

 sequences of the denudatioli— a condition which nothing can now remedy 

 but a strong energetic action on the part of the people to replant and irri- 

 gate it. 



Asbjofnsen says: "Numerous examples show that woods exert ail inflB ' 

 ence in producing rain, and that tain fails where they are Wanting ; for 

 many countries have by the destruction of their forests, been deprived of 

 i-ain, moisture, springs and water-courses. Which are necessary for vegetable 

 growth. In Palestine, and many other parts of Asia and iJ^orthern Africa, 

 Which in ancient times were the granaries of Europe, fertile and populous, 

 similar consequences have been experienced. These lands are now deserts, 

 and it is the destruction of the forests alone which has produced this desola- 

 tion. On the other hand, exafnfiles of the beneficial influence of planting 

 and restoring the woods are not wanting. In' Lower Egypt, both at Cairo 



