1849.] 



exercised by Trees on Climate, 



419 



could have become of tlie wreck of that earth the pretended 

 evidences of which rise on every side upon the surface of the 

 globe. I could make it evident that they are placed there in 

 aggregations and situations adapted to the necessities of the 

 earth, of which they are in some measure the reservoirs, some in 

 the form of a labyrinth like those of the island of Bourbon, when 

 they are on the summit of a hemisphere, whence they are destined 

 to distribute the waters of heaven in every direction ; others in 

 the form of a comb, when they are placed on the lengthened crest 

 of a chain of mountains, like the peaks of Taurus and of the Cor- 

 dilleras ; others grouped two or three together according to the 

 configuration of the districts they water. They are of various 

 forms and of different constructions, some are covered with earth, 

 as those of the plain of the Caffres, and some of the Antilles is- 

 lands, and which are at the same time so steep as to be inacces- 

 sible. These incrustations of earth prove that they have both 

 fossil and hydraulic attractions. 



There are others which are long needles of solid and naked 

 rock ; others are conical, or in the form of a table like the Table 

 Mountain at the Cape of Good Hope, on which you may frequently 

 see the clouds accumulate and spread out in the form of a table 

 cloth. Others are not apparent but are entirely enveloped in the 

 sides of mountains or in the bosoms of plains. All are distin- 

 guishable by the fogs which they attract about them and by the 

 streams which flow in their vicinity. "We may even rest assured- 

 that there exists not a single stream in the neighbourhood of 

 which there is not some quarry of hydro-attractive and most com- 

 monly metallic stone. I ascribe the attraction of these peaks to 

 the vitreous and metallic substances of which they are composed, 

 I am persuaded that it would be possible to imitate this architec- 

 ture of nature, and by means of the attraction of these stones to form 

 fountains in the most parched situations. In general vitreous 

 bodies and stones susceptible of polish are highly proper for this 

 purpose ; for when water is diffused in great quantity through the 

 air, as at the time of a thaw, it is first attracted and adheres to the 

 glasses and polished stone in our houses. 



I have frequently observed on the summits of the mountains of 

 the Isle of Prance effects similar to those of the peaks of the plain 



YQI,, XT. :^iO. XXXTI. i'l 



