54 MOBEEN FOREST ECONOMY. 



juniperoides, which gives their name to the Cedar -bergen of 

 Clanwilliam, the whole of which chain of mountains was 

 once studded with these trees, have now almost entirely 

 disappeared. It is only the great extent of the forests of 

 George of the Kingsna and of Kaffraria which has pre- 

 vented these forests from yet attaining a like condition. 

 And a mountain adjacent to Somerset, it has been 

 reported to me, has been entirely cleared. Bush fires 

 have aided in bringing about this result. I have seen in 

 the Colony mountain-sides naked and bare, which some 

 years before were covered with trees. What I have stated 

 has been confirmed by many of my correspondents : — 



There has been reported to me details of a forest fire on 

 15th December 1865, which was occasioned by four 

 natives kindling a fire on the pasture land of Galger 

 Bosche, and was so extensive that the smoke extended to 

 and beyond Bedford, a hundred miles distant ; and on the 

 9th February 1869, there occurred a like fire, which 

 desolated a tract of country 400 miles long, and varying 

 'in breadth from 15 to 150 miles. I have given details ia 

 Hydrology of South Africa, pp. 175-194. 



Consequent upon the destruction of forests there has 

 been extensive desiccation of soil and* climate, alternations 

 of long-continued (Jrought with destructive floods, and indi- 

 cations that the sequence is that of cause and effect. Dr 

 Moffat tells of the arid region of his missionary labours, 

 that in his settlement at Latakoo, the natives were wont 

 to tell of the floods of ancient times, the incessant showers 

 which clothed the very rocks with verdure, and the giant 

 trees and forests which once studded the brows of the 

 Hamhana hills and neighbouring plains. They boasted of 

 the Kurruman and other rivers, with their impassable 

 torrents, in which the hippopotami played, while the lowing 

 helrds walked to their necks in grass, filling their makukus 

 with milk, making every heart zo sing for joy. Now all 

 that is a thing of the past. I have visited a farm where 

 it may be said they had had no rain for three years. I 

 had once to ride eighty-four miles before I could reach a 



