Notes on the Influence 



[No. 36, 



uf the CafFres in tlie Island of Bourbon. The clouds are incoR- 

 santly collected around their peaks which are steep, and pointed 

 lilvc pp'amids : some of these peaks are surmounted with a rock 

 of a cubical form which crowns them like a capital, such is that 

 which is there called Piterbooth after a Dutch admiral of tliai 

 ]iame : it is one of the highest in the island. 



These peaks are formed of a solid rock, vitrifiable and mixed 

 with copper ; they are real electrical needles, botli from their form 

 and their substance. The clouds deviate perceptibly from their 

 course to collect round them and sometimes accumulate in such 

 great quantity, as to shroud them from the view. Thence they 

 descend to the bottom of the vallies along the skirts of the forests, 

 which likewise attract them, and there they dissolve into rain, 

 frequently forming rainbows on the verdure of the trees. This 

 vegetable attraction of the forests of this island so perfectly ac- 

 cords with the metallic attraction of the peaks of the mountains 

 that a field situated in an open place in their vicinity, often suffers 

 from the drought, while it is raining the whole year round in the 

 woods at the distance of less than a musket-shot. By destroying 

 part of the trees that crowned the eminences of that island, most 

 of the streams which watered it were dried up : of these nothing 

 now remains but the empty channels. To the same injudicious 

 management, I ascribe the perceptible diminution of the rivers 

 and streams in a great portion of Europe, as may be seen by their 

 ancient beds, which are much too wide and deep for the volume of 

 water they now contain. Nay, I am persuaded that to this cause 

 must be ascribed the drought in the elevated provinces of Asia, 

 among others in those of Persia, the mountains of which were, 

 without doubt, imprudently stripped of trees 'by the first inha- 

 bitants. I am of opinion that if mountain trees were planted in 

 Prance on the eminences and at the sources of our rivers, their 

 ancient volume of water might be restored and many streams 

 which have ceased to flow, would again appear in our fields. It is 

 not among the reeds, nor in the depths of vallies, that the Naiads 

 conceal their everlasting urns, according to the representations of 

 painters, but on the summits of rocks, crowned with groves, and 

 near to the heavens.* 



Ibifl p. 242. 



