102 RINGBARKING AND ITS EFFECTS. 
either way at present, but if the work which Mr. Russell has 
begun in keeping a record of the outflow of some of our rivers is 
carried on, before the present generation has passed away there 
will be something on which to base an opinion 
A few years ago it would have been deemed the very acme of 
absurdity for any man to destroy the timber on his land for the 
purpose of producing permanent water, and now it is done every 
day asa matter of course. 
That the destruction of the forests will reduce the rainfall is, I 
think, unlikely. 
The theory that the amount of rainfall in any country depends 
on the area of its forests seems to be very generally received, and 
may have arisen from the fact that where there is a large and 
regular rainfall there is pretty sure to be a heavy forest growth, 
but a little thought will show that the forest is the result of the 
rainfall, not the rainfall of the forest. eae 
Indeed it is hard to understand how any forest could come into 
existence if the amount of rainfall were influenced mainly by te 
forest growth, as the forest would have to precede the rainfall 
and yet could not grow without it. Be 
In conclusion, I wish to call attention to a report by Mr 
Draper, Director of the New York Observatory, America, which 
was published in the Scientific American supplement for Janualy 
3rd, 1880, and which bears on the subject of this paper a 
question whether deforestation reduces rainfall, or alters ‘sl 
in any way, is the one which Mr. Draper proposes to himself 2) 
the answer after supplying necessary data is that it does _ 
Mr. Draper shows that neither the rainfall nor the temper” 
of the Atlantic States of America has altered im any apP “states 
degree within the last century, and these, I think, are the 
in which, within the last century, a larger amount of de: peer 
has been done than in any other part of the world. dn i 
Not being satisfied with the length of time over which the 
Paris in France, extending over a period of 190 yeas aa slg 
on examining them that during that time there hail be ae 
h 
ii 
illations 
there must be very much less forest 
was two hundred years ago. 
