DISCUSSION: FORESTS, RESERVOIRS, AND STREAM FLOW 401 
severest floods which have been experienced have been caused by mr. Leighton. 
warm rain falling upon hitherto unmelted accumulations of snow. In 
the lower altitudes warm rains sometimes occur in midwinter. They 
fall “on the just and on the unjust,” on forested as well as on 
deforested areas, and if Colonel Chittenden’s reasoning be correct, 
then would the melting in the open be much faster than in the forest. 
It is true, as Colonel Chittenden states, that a drift in the open 
in the high Sierras and Rocky Mountains remains long after the 
snow in the forest is gone. There is a reason for this, which is peculiar 
to such country. This is not always true in the lower countries, 
Colonel Chittenden’s experience in Western New York to the con- 
trary notwithstanding. Inasmuch as the author has referred in an 
attractive way to his experiences as a boy on the farm, the speaker 
will assert that he, too, “was once a bare-foot boy,” and that in the 
woods of Maine when he desired to find snow in June or July, he 
went to the forest, as did-other boys. In the open country crops were 
approaching maturity at that time. 
Generalizations based on observations in a limited area are dan- 
gerous, and it is a fact that, if one travels along the Sierras from south 
to north, he can find exemplified practically every condition of snow- 
melting and run-off, some of which conform to the conditions stated 
by Colonel Chittenden and others to the conditions which he declares 
never exist. Let him take a wider range of observation in the matter 
of snow-melting and consequent run-off, and out of his own mouth 
will he disprove his assertion. 
The speaker will not discuss the obvious errors shown by Fig. 1. 
In view of the foregoing, it should be clear that, for the greater part 
of the United States, the legends on the two curves should be 
transposed. 
From pages 254 to 256 the implication seems to be that the greater 
part of the snow in the forest is lodged on the branches of trees, and 
that the part which passes through to the ground is of a light and 
feathery nature, the whole presenting an admirable focus for quick 
melting by subsequent rains. It is stated that “of an 18-in. fall, 
perhaps 12 in. is on the trees and the rest spread evenly on the ground.” 
The whole picture is deceptive. If the author will visit the forests 
of the Northwest, with which he appears to be most familiar, he will 
find, in some sections, two sets of trail marks on the trees, one close 
to the ground for summer guidance, and the other from 10 to 15 ft. 
above the ground for the guidance of the winter traveler, who is walk- 
ing at approximately that height on the top of the snow. Of course, 
during any snow storm a large amount of snow will accumulate on 
the trees; but it is undeniable that the first sweeping wind which rushes 
through the forest, after the snow has fallen, will blow off the greater 
part thereof, and it will find lodgment on the ground. Therefore, the 
