520 - Are We Drying Up? [September, 
may not. as suggested first by Saemann and afterwards by De- 
lesse, have something to do with the proven desiccation. 
In regard to one question this commission of the Vienna Acad- 
emy is quite unanimous, and this is that great pains should be 
taken by the different governments of the enlightened states 
throughout the world to obtain more light and additional data 
bearing on this subject. If desirable for Europe it is still more 
so in this country. We need much more numerous and more 
accurate observations of rain-fall. One cannot but be struck, in 
examining Mr. Schott’s working over of the Smithsonian rain- 
tables, with the poverty and incompleteness of the data. We 
need also careful and long-continued measurements of the amount 
of water flowing in some of our principal rivers. For instance, 
New York should establish a systematic investigation of the 
Hudson River, and Massachusetts or Connecticut, or both, should 
take in hand the river which flows through those two States, and 
which is of so much importance to their manufacturing and other 
interests. For California, especially, these investigations are of 
the greatest importance. If it can be shown that the removal 
of the forests seriously diminishes the quantity of water running 
in the streams, then there is yet time to stay the hand of the 
wood-cutter ere the mischief be consummated. That the strip- 
ping of the Sierra Nevada of its timber would be essentially 
injurious to the State in increasing the already alarming irreg- 
ularity of the seasons there can be little doubt, even if the aver- 
age precipitation were to remain the same. 
That there has been a very marked decrease in the amount 
of water on the earth within the most recent geological period 18 
beyond a doubt ; and that there is considerable reason to believe 
that the desiccation is still going on has, we think, been made 
evident in the above pages, although it has been necessary 10. 
handle with extreme brevity the various points advanced. Much 
might be said with reference to the connection of the so-called 
“ glacial epoch” with the present one of desiccation, but this part 
of the discussion must be reserved for another occasion. 
