144 



tate the country. Hence it results, that the 

 destruction of forests, the want of permanent 

 springs, and the existence of torrents, ..are three 

 phenomena closely connected together. Coun- 

 tries that are situate in opposite hemispheres, 

 Lombardy bordered by the chain of the Alps, 

 and Lower Peru inclosed between the Pacific 

 Ocean and the Cordillera of the Andes, exhibit 

 striking proofs of the justness of this assertion 



Till the middle of the last century, the 

 mountains that surround the valleys of Aragua 

 were covered with forests. Great trees of the 

 families of mimosa, ceiba, and the fig-tree, 

 shaded and spread coolness along the banks of 

 the lake. The plain, then thinly inhabited, was 

 filled with brush- wood, interspersed with trunks 

 of scattered t rees and parasite plants, envelopped 

 with a thick sward, less capable of emitting 

 radiant caloric than the soil that is cultivated, 

 and therefore not sheltered from the rays of the 

 Sun. With the destruction of trees, and the 

 increase of the cultivation of sugar, indigo, and 

 cotton, the springs, and all the natural supplies 

 of the lake of Valencia, have diminished from 

 year to year. It is difficult to form a just idea 

 of the enormous quantity of evaporation, that 

 takes place under the torrid zone, in a valley 



* See my political Essai on New Spain, vol. i, p. 208, and 



the Recherches de M, de Prony sur les Crues du P6. 



