62 FOREST DESTRUCTION IN NEW SOUTH WALES. 



produce springs where there were none before. I have myself 

 fenced in dry country, and afterwards produced permanently 

 running streams by simply ring-barking the trees, and this 1 have 

 been able to do because the country was in all respects similar to 

 other country which had been operated on before. 



Of course, the geological formation as well as the contour of 

 the country has much to do with the question, whether 

 deforestation in any given case will produce surface water or not. 

 In many parts of the country where there are deep-lying beds of 

 sand or gravel, an increased flow of water produced by ring-barking 

 would not make itself apparent on the surface or in the water- 

 courses or creeks. The volume of underground water would be 

 increased, but not sufficiently to bring it to the surface of even as 

 high as the beds of the creeks, and the increased volume would 

 find its way to the main rivers by the old underground channels. 

 The country upon which I have operated consists of basaltic 

 ranges and valleys, some of the ranges of considerable elevation 

 covered principally with white box timber, a species of eucalyptus 

 not hitherto noted for very rapid growth or for any unusual power 

 of withdrawing moisture from the soil. The height above sea 

 level varies from about 1,300 feet to about 2,500 feet. The 

 distance due east from the sea coast is from 70 to 80 miles ; 

 latitude 31° 55', longitude 150° 50'. In no case is there any sand 

 or gravel in the formation, but in other parts of the Colony I 

 have known ring-barking to produce water in sandstone and 

 gravelly country. The soil is not very deep, varying from two to 

 three feet to about twenty feet, and the creeks all run on the 

 basaltic bottom rock. It is a centre of long continued volcanic 

 disturbance, surrounded on all sides by the older coal measures 

 tilted against the volcanic ranges at various angles of inclination 

 and broken up in every direction. 



It may be thought that my experience is exceptional, and it 

 will no doubt be asserted that the change which has come over 

 the country which I hold since the forests were destroyed is due 

 to other and unknown causes. The facts which I have given 

 here are undeniable and may be verified any day, and I do not 

 think my experience is exceptionable. It certainly is not in this 

 part of the Colony, and I have made inquiry in many parts of 

 New South Wales, and found in nearly all cases that the result 

 of ring-barking was to increase the flow of water in the water- 

 courses and cause the outburst of fresh springs. In one case on 

 the Upper Namoi River, where ring-barking did not apparently 

 increase the flow of water in the creeks, the banks of the river in 

 many places just above water level became boggy, showing an, 

 additional inflow of water, which I think accounts satisfactorily 

 for the non-increase in the smaller water-courses. The formation 



