14 



and near Alexandria, tain rarely fell in consideratle quantity— ifor example, 

 during th« French occupation of Egypt, it did not rain for sixteen months'^ 

 but since Mehemet Ali and Iljrahim Pacha executed their vast plantations, 

 (the former alone having planted toore than twenty millions of olive and fig 

 trees, cottonwoods, oranges, &c.,) there now falls a good deal of rain, espe- 

 cially along the coast, in the months of November, Diecember and January j 

 and even at Cairo it rains both oftener and more abundantly, so that real 

 showers are no rarity." 



Boussingault, a most careful observer and guarded wi'iter, says : " In my 

 judgment, it is settled that very large clearings must diminish the annual fall 

 of rain in a country." 



It is a matter of common observation that springs are frequently dried up 

 by clearing the ground above and adjacent to them. A great many instances 

 might be given. MArschand aaya: "The Wolf spring, in the commune of 

 Bouberg furnishes a remarkable example of the influence of the woods upon 

 fountains. A few years ago this spring did not exist. At the place where 

 it now rises, a small thread of Water was observed after long rains, but th6 

 stream disappeared with the rain. The spot is in the middle of a very steep 

 pasture inclining to the south. Eighty years ago the owner of the land per-' 

 ceiving that young firs were springing up in the upper part of it determined 

 to let them grow, and they sooh formed a flourishing gt'ove. As soon as they 

 were well grown, a fine spring appeared in the place of the occasional rill, 

 and furnished abundant water in the longest droughts. J*or forty or fifty years 

 this spring was considered the best in Clos dU Douds. A feW years since 

 the grove was felled and the ground turned into a pasture. The spring disap- 

 peared with the wood, and is nbw as dry as it Was ninety years ago." 



Dr. Piper, in his " Trees of America," says : " Within half ft mile of my 

 residence there is a pond, upon which mills have been standing for a long 

 time, dating back, I believe to the fii'st settlement of the town. These haVe 

 been kept in constant operation until within some twenty or thirty years. 

 When the supply of water began to fail. The pond owes its existence to a 

 stream which has its source in the hills which stretch some miles to the south. 

 Within the time mentioned, these hills, which were clothed with a dense for' 

 ^t, have been almost entirely stripped of trees; and to the wonder and loss 

 of the mill owners, the water in the pond has fiiiled, except in the seas(rn of 

 freshets, and what was never heard of before, the stream itself has been en- 

 tirely dry. Within the last ten years a new growth of Wood has sprung up 

 on most of the la"nds formerly occupied by the forests, and now the watei* 

 runs through the year, notwithstanding the great droughts of the last few 

 years." 



It follows also, from the facts above recited, thj^t clearing a c^mntry of trees 

 increases ^/suddenness and magnUude of Jkods aid torrents; trees causing the 

 Surplus water to pass off through the rivers mo^B uniformly throughout the 



