103 
The effects of forests in retarding the flow of the rainfall after its precipitation has been established, 
I consider, beyond all question.* 
Already the rivers that rise in those regions (Northern United States) flow with diminished currents 
in dry seasons, and with augmented volumes of water after heavy rains. They bring down larger quantities 
of sediment, and the increasing obstructions to the navigation of the Hudson, which are extending them- 
selves down the channel in proportion as the fields are encroaching on the forests, give good grounds for 
the fear of irreparable injury to the commerce of the important towns on the upper waters of that river ; 
unless measures are taken to prevent the expansion of the improvements, which have already been carried 
beyond the limits of a wise economy, f 
Professor Fernow says : 
The present policy of forest destruction and of allowing our waters to run to waste, not only entails 
the loss of their beneficial action upon plant production, but permits them to injure crops, to wash the 
fertile mould from the soil, and even to erase and carry away the soil itself. 
And again : 
Here the comparative lengths of the affluents alone may become all important, since the simultaneous 
or non-simultaneous arrival of flood-waters may determine the occurrence or non-occurrence of floods. As 
far as the forest cover is concerned in such cases, deforestation in one side of the valleys and consequent 
rapid discharge, may become an advantage for the water to flow in the main river, by allowing its 
removal before the arrival of the flood-waters of another affluent. In view of these considerations it 
would, therefore, be folly to assign to the conditions of the forest cover in the catchment basins an 
all-determinative function. Nevertheless, in general, the influence of favourable forest conditions in the 
catchment basin upon river flow cannot be doubted, although it may become practically of no account 
in abnormal floods. ... In the torrent of Bourget, which had been reforested and corrected in 
its bed, a simple, somewhat turbulent run of water was observed, which at the overflow reached the 
height of 45 centimetres (18 inches), and lasted about three hours. 
The report thus continues : 
The facts show the importance of the forest cover. Thanks to the dense growth planted, the flood- 
waters, divided in numberless runs and retarded constantly in their movement over the declivities in the 
upper basin, arrive only successively and little by little in the main bed, instead of these formidable masses 
of water and debris which, rapidly agglomerated, rush into the channel ; the brooks called to replace the 
torrent receive only pure water ; flood-waters flowing off gradually and made harmless by the regulation of 
tbe torrent bed and of the slopes. 
Let me make three quotations from Ribbentrop : 
The Ratnagiri District, in the Bombay Presidency, is almost bare up to the crest of the Ghats, and 
here, Sir Dietrich Brandis says, the effects of denudation have shown themselves in this way : 
There are four principal streams in the district, which, rising in the Ghat mountains, run a short 
course to the sea, all of which were formerly navigable and important for the trade of the country. For 
small boats they are still navigable, but they are gradually silting-up, because the hills at their head- waters 
have become denuded of forests. J 
The denudation of the Deccan highlands and the Eastern Ghats has resulted in the gradual silting- 
up of rivers. When the English, French, and Dutch first made settlements on the Coromandel Coast, they 
were able to take ships up the rivers Godavari and Kistna. Narasapur (English) and Yanaon (French), 
on the Godavari, though now only approachable by small native crafts at high tide, were once the chief 
ports for that part of the coast. At Masulipatam, the Dutch ships used to come close up to the fort, but 
now even native vessels of small draught have to anchor 5 miles out in the roads. 
The periodically recurring breaches in the railway embankments, especially those of July, I860, are, 
there is good reason to believe, due to the denudation of the Sewaliks and other sub-Himalayan hills.|| 
I do not know to what extent the silting-up of our rivers, owing to the 
washing away of the soil on their banks and on higher levels, has been studied in 
New South Wales, but undoubtedly it is a subject worthy of the attention of 
our best intellects. 
J. Croumbie Brown, op. cit. 1 1'eppercorne, op. cit. J Op. cit., p. 52. OIL cit., p. 52. j .Op. cit., p. 54. 
