FORESTS IN THEIR RELATION TO RAINFALL. 227 



The rainfall is thus suddenly delivered to the injury of all. On 

 the other hand, the perennial character of springs and streams is 

 diminished or destroyed. . . . When the forest is gone on 

 these steep Sierras, floods and torrents alternate with wide and 

 arid wastes of waterless torrent beds." 1 



VI. Rainfall Measurements in Forests and Open 

 Country. 



"We have large areas in this and neighbouring colonies where 

 the forest is so thick that it will not pay to clear it away. Yet 

 these very rain-traps secure no more than the bare country, as I 

 know by actual experiment carried on in one forest for a number 

 of years, and in the dry time they suffer from drought just as the 

 bare country does." 2 



"But the strongest argument adduced in the past to show the 

 influence of forest on rainfall has existed in a comparison between 

 rain-gauge measures in the forest and in the open field. Such 

 records have been made for more than thirty years in France and 

 Germany, and surely we must have here, if anywhere, a sufficient 

 proof of a forest's influence. 



"Admitting that we have perfect instruments and careful 

 observers, there still remains a most serious doubt as to the 

 immediate environment of each gauge and as to the possibility of 

 a direct comparison. It is probable that no two gauges 2000 feet 

 apart can be placed so as to catch the same amount of rain, though 

 to all appearances the exposure is faultless in each case." 3 



Extreme caution is therefore needed in interpreting 

 rainfall records in forests. We have also evidence of the 

 partiality of rain showers on similar surfaces, e.g., it some- 

 times rains in one paddock and not in an adjacent one. 

 Professor Hazen gives instances of accurate records in 

 forests and adjacent country by meteorologists, both in 



1 Abbot Kinney, op. cit. 



2 Mr. H. C. Russell, Sydney Morning Herald, 1st December, 1898. 



3 Professor H. A. Hazen, op. cit. 



