EFFECT OF SETTLEMENT UPON INDIGENOUS VEGETATION, 195 
of dew, mist, or rain.”* Again, ‘There can no longer be any 
doubt in the minds of those who have taken the trouble to study 
the subject, that large forests do really attract the rain-clouds. It 
is beyond the question of a doubt—it is a well ascertained fact.” + 
Dr. Ross says: “The practice of wholesale ringbarking I feel 
sure exercises a very deleterious influence on the growth of vege- 
tation. Not only are the grasses, deprived of the protecting shade 
of the trees, scorched and withered by the unintercepted rays of 
the sun, but the radiation and reflection of the solar heat is far 
greater on the surface of uncovered mountains and treeless plains 
than from forests. The superincumbent air therefore becomes 
hotter ; its capacity for sustaining vapour in suspension is decreased 
and the probability of rainfall is lessened.” t 
In a paper on “The Effects of Forest Vegetation on Climate,” 
by the late Rev. W. B. Clarke§ the author takes the same stand. 
In a resumed discussion of the paper, ‘‘ Mr. C. Moore restated the 
points he had previously advanced as follows :—1. That the dense 
jungle vegetation, which of all others is supposed to attract and 
hold moisture, and which for about four hundred miles was so 
general within the coast range has been almost wholly destroyed 
during the same period. 2. That in addition to this, millions of 
acres of more open forest have been destroyed during the same 
period. 3. That notwithstanding this tremendous destruction no 
drier climatic effect has been experienced. 4. So far as my know- 
ledge extends, the only observable effect has been that in some 
districts in which the forest has been destroyed small rivulets 
usually contained water, but in many instances are now dry. 5, 
That now the larger rivers of the Colony show no diminution in 
breadth or depth. 6. That the rainfall, instead of decreasing as 
might have been expected from the destruction of so much forest, 
has been of late years more regular and greater than formerly.” 
* Id. p.3. + Id. p. 5. 
~ On the effect of Climate, etc. on Wool—Journ. Roy. Soc. of N.S. 
Wales, Vol. xvi., p. 237. 
§ Journ. Roy. Soc. of N.S. Wales, Vol. x., pp. 179 - 228. 
