302 DISPUTED EFFECTS OF FORESTS 



point to a different conclusion from that which is thus announced. 

 But I have to say in reference to this, that it was implied in or covered 

 by the instructions given to the Commission to consider this matter 

 and to report ; and further, that I find no difficulty in accounting 

 for any of the apparently conflicting facts referred to, without com- 

 promising the conclusion arrived at by the Commission, and I know 

 of numerous facts in accordance with thut conclusion. 



M. E. Renou, in a paper entitled Theorie de la pluie, which ap- 

 peared in the AnnuairQ de la Societe Metiorologiqiie de France (t. xiv. 

 p. 89, 1866), writes : — "When it is seen that the rain depends as its 

 condition on great atmospheric movements, and is only modified by 

 the principal accidents of soil, mountains, and seas, what influence 

 can the cultivation by man, and more especially the forests, have 

 upon this phenomenon ? A generally-existing opinion attributes to 

 them an important influence on the distribution of the moisture pre- 

 cipitated from the atmosphere ; but this opinion, which is purely 

 theoretic, has absolutely no foundation : there never has been cited 

 in support of it a single indisputable observation, and if in certain 

 lands, as Algeria, it rains more on forests than on the lands devoid 

 of these, in attributing to them an influence on the rain this is only 

 to confound the effect with the cause. The rainfall follows in a striking 

 manner the relief oi the soil, and forests appear nowhere spontaneously 

 excepting where there is a sufficiency of rain. This observation is 

 applicable to the analogous cases cited by M. Boussingault in America. 

 It is precisely at the line of contact of the bare regions and the 

 wooded regions near the limits of the natural growth of woods that 

 this can be remarked ; these forests do not generally receive sufficient 

 rain for them to grow everywhere, and they are found only there 

 where the position and arrangement of the mountains permit the soil 

 to receive the greatest quantity of water. 



" Charts representing courses followed by storms of rain and storms 

 of hail do not indicate the least deviation from their course in the 

 vicinity of forests. The celebrated hail-storm of the 13th June 1788 

 has long ago shown this to be the case ; it followed a line almost 

 straight, absolutely independent of what was seen on the soil 

 beneath it. 



" The opinion in regard to the influence of forests on rain is just 

 like all prejudices : it has been repeated for a considerable length of 

 time without having the least proof. In my opinion, man has not 

 the least influence on natural phenouena. Formerly, it was sought 

 to couneot meteorological phenomena with dominant local influences ; 



