198 
INFLUENCE OF THE FOREST ON SPRINGS. 
extent, immediately above it, and has since continued to flow 
uninterruptedly. The uplands in the Atlantic States formerly 
abounded in sources and rills, but in many parts of those 
States which have been cleared for above a generation or two, 
the hill pastures now suffer severely from drought, and in dry 
seasons no longer afford either water or herbage for cattle. 
Foissac, indeed, quotes from the elder Pliny (Nat. Hist ., 
xxxi, c. 30) a passage affirming that the felling of the woods 
gives rise to springs which did not exist before because the 
water of the soil was absorbed by the trees; and the same 
meteorologist declares, as I observed in treating of the effect 
of the forest on atmospheric humidity, that the planting of 
trees tends to drain marshy ground, because the roots absorb 
more water than falls from the air. But Pliny’s statement 
rests on very doubtful authority, and Foissac cites no evidence 
in support of his own proposition.* In the American States, 
it is always observed that clearing the ground not only causes 
running springs to disappear, but dries up the stagnant pools 
and the spongy soils of the low grounds. The first roads in 
those States ran along the ridges, when practicable, because 
there only was the earth dry enough to allow of their construc¬ 
tion, and, for the same reason, the cabins of the first settlers 
were perched upon the hills. As the forests have been from 
time to time removed, and the face of the earth laid open to 
the air and sun, the moisture has been evaporated, and the 
removal of the highways and of human habitations from the 
bleak hills to the sheltered valleys, is one of the most agree- 
/ 
* The passage in Pliny is as follows: “Nascuntur fontes, decisis 
plerumque silvis, quos arborum alimenta consumebant, sicut in Hsemo, 
obsidente Gallos Cassandro, qunm valli gratia cecidissent. Plerumque 
vero damnosi torrentes corrivantur, detracta collibus silva continere 
nimbos ac digerere consueta.”— Nat. Hist., xxxi, 30. 
Seneca cites this case, and another similar one said to have been ob¬ 
served at Magnesia, from a passage in Theophrastus, not to be found in the 
extant works of that author; but he adds that the stories are incredible, 
because shaded grounds abound most in water: fer& aquosissima sunt 
quaecumque umbrosissima.— Qucest. Nat., iii, 11. 
