DISCUSSION : FORESTS, RESERVOIRS, AND STREAM FLOW 543 
evaporated by the action of the sun in the absence of shade. I know Mr. item 
two small springs that ran for the whole year for ten years after the 
land was cut over, but, that since the thrifty growth of young pines 
have reached a height of from 15 to 25 feet and shade the ground as 
well, if not better, than the large trees did, have dried up about the 
last of August for five years past, and I can see no cause for it except 
that the trees are using the water. The supply of water used by my 
company in its operations has not decreased with the disappearance 
of the timber, and I do not find that the freshets are any more frequent 
or more violent than before the trees were cut off. The trees are com- 
ing up in a second growth much more numerously than they were be- 
fore, and after sixty or seventy years about nine-tenths of them will 
die off and decay, leaving the timber about as it was when we first 
came to this country; then I think my springs will flow again. My 
observation teaches me that the amount of rainfall is not affected by 
denuding the mountain-side, but that the surface of the ground will 
therefore be drier, but that streams and the springs will be more 
eS ae by the water used by the trees than by evaporation in their 
absence. 
* * * * * x * * * * 
“Trees tend to dissipate the snows in the Springtime also, by break- 
ing up the steady cold winds that come down from the north at that 
season, almost invariably. When the current is permitted to flow on 
in uninterrupted sweep it retains the chill, but let it strike a forest and 
wind in and out among the trees for a mile or two and there will 
be a decided change in the temperature. It will be much better pre- 
pared to absorb moisture and also to melt the snow banks in its changed 
form as it pursues its southern journey. 
“But the strongest force at work to save our rivers is the drifting 
winds which heap up the snow in great banks, and in this the trees are 
a constant obstacle. There will be miniature drifts, it is true, but 
nothing to what they are when there is no obstruction. Outside the 
timber belt, where there is nothing to catch the snow as it falls and 
nothing to break the force of the wind, one of the most powerful and 
active agents in preserving the water supply of the country comes 
into play. By forming solid bodies of snow, the most effective means 
of saving water for summer is reached. Across the bleak summits and 
down the vast canyons the wind has a well-nigh irresistible force, and 
it not only gathers up the snow after it has ceased to come down, 
but it usually keeps at work all the time it is falling and carries it in 
whirling clouds until it strikes a cliff or a canyon set at just the right 
angle and there it deposits the whole load. As long as there is any 
material left outside to work upon this is kept up, and there is no 
knowing how deep some of the big drifts get to be in the course of a 
leng winter. As the days get warmer, the surface thaws a little and 
moistens the cake down a few inches, but the cold nights found all the 
year round at such altitudes soon transform it into ice, making a crust 
upon which the heat of the sun and the absorbing power of the air 
find it difficult to make any impression. On open ground the process 
is aided by the packing power of the wind, and it is not an unusual 
thing to see a man on horseback traveling comfortably across snow- 
en 
