146 



MANGROVES. 



The question of cutting down the mangroves round the coast of Ja- 

 maica for the purpose of supplying a tanning material has been discussed, 

 and although at the present rate of cutting no harm is likely to happen, 

 the following correspondence supplies a warning which requires very 

 careful consideration before cutting on a large scale could be permitted 



The Secretary of State for the Colonies to the Governor of Jamaica. 



Downing Street, 9th May, 1884. 



Sir, 



I have the honour to transmit to you the enclosed copy of a despatch 

 addressed to Lord Granville, by Mr. Corbett, Her Majesty's Minister at 

 Bio de Janeiro, together with a translation of parts of a pamphlet re- 

 specting the alleged injurious effect on the climate, etc., of the Bay of 

 Rio of the wholesale destruction of the mangrove forests on its banks. 



I have, etc., 



Derby. 



Mr. Corbett to Earl Granville. 



Petropolis, March 15th, 1884. 



My Lord, 



I have the honour to enclose to your Lordship copies of a pampblet 

 which has been recently published at Rio de Janeiro by Senhor Pedro 

 Soares Caldeira, a very well-informed person, calling attention to the 

 deplorable effect on the health, climate, and fisheries on the Bay of Bio 

 of the wholesale destruction of the mangrove forests on its banks. He 

 states that when the mudbanks were covered with mangrove trees, 

 yellow fever and other disorders of an epidemic kind were unknown. 



I have caused certain parts of the pamphlet, which show most clearly 

 the evil effects of the destruction of the mangrove, and the supposed 

 presence of yellow fever in consequence, to be translated, and have the 

 honour to enclose them. 



It has occurred to me that the contents of this pamphlet may have a 

 special interest in those tropical British colonies where, in some degree 

 no doubt, similar climatical circumstances exist as in Brazil, and where 

 perhaps the mangrove forests have been as recklessly destroyed as in 

 this country. 



If attention has not been called to the effect of such destruction on 

 the public health, it may be useful that it should be known in such 

 places what the result of the destriction of the mangrove forest in the 

 Bay of Rio is believed to have been. 



I have, &c. 



Edwin Corbett. 



The Cutting of the Mangroves. 

 Far different is the present state of the shores of the vast Bay of Rio 

 de Janeiro to what it formerly was. Up to the third part of this 

 present century those shores, as well as those of the innumerable islands 

 of the Bay, were bordered by vast quantities of these trees, which 



