DISCUSSION : FORESTS, RESERVOIRS, AND STREAM FLOW 523 
down through an era of 5000 years, very unchangeable in its char- yp, cnitten- 
acter, each generation doing essentially what its predecessors did, is 4" 
now, within 50 or 100 years, changing the climate of its country and 
bringing the Mongol Desert nearer to its doors, is simply unbelievable. 
These results may be ensuing, but deforestation is not the cause. 
From the best evidence available, it does not appear that the mag- 
nitude of the floods of either the Hoang Ho or Yang Tse Kiang, 
measured in absolute quantities or per square mile of drainage basin, 
equal those of the Ohio. General James H. Wilson, who inspected the 
embankments of the Hoang Ho in 1885, considered that the control of 
that stream was entirely practicable, and that the present overflows 
are due largely to inefficiency in construction and negligence in main- 
tenance of the levees. 
The Hun Ho, which has been referred to as an example of de- 
terioration due to deforestation, being navigable in Marco Polo’s time 
but non-navigable now, is, according to Colonel Yule, the editor of 
Marco Polo’s work, not the stream to which Polo referred at all. But 
whatever may be the stream to which he did refer, his references are 
so vague, and the character of navigation so uncertain, that definite 
conclusions cannot be based upon them. Moreover, if Man is the cause 
of channel deterioration in the streams of that country, assuming 
that such has taken place, it is, as the writer has pointed out in the 
case of our own country, cultivation (his subsequent operations on the 
soil) which is responsible, and not deforestation. In the Chinese 
order of life every vestige of vegetation is combed off the hills, and 
they are left barren and a prey to the elements. It is not trees alone, 
-but grass, brush and growths of every description. The effect of the 
removal of whatever trees formerly stood there could be nothing to the 
subsequent denudation of the soil. 
Tf one were to carry this illustration to its limit, he might enlarge 
upon what Mr. Labelle has pointed out, that the one fact which the 
case of China proves beyond peradventure is that a great civilization 
and a dense population can subsist with almost no reliance upon 
forests, for the Chinese make very little use of wood. Here is the 
oldest civilization in the world, the most homogeneous people, the 
densest population. It is not a race of invalids, either. General Wil- 
son says of them as he saw them in 1885: 
“After seeing the Chinese people under all conditions of life, and in 
many remote and widely separated parts of the empire, I am com- 
pelled to say that they seem to me to be remarkably sturdy, robust, 
and healthy, and to be especially free from consumption and all other 
forms of constitutional disease.” And again, “ the Chinese race is 
certainly strong and vigorous, and shows no sign whatever of decay.” 
Although a large part of China proper is too mountainous to be 
thickly inhabited, yet the average density of population per square 
