INFLUENCE OF THE FOREST ON SPRINGS. 207 
The spot is in the middle of a very steep pasture inclining to 
the south. Eighty years ago, the owner of the land, perceiv¬ 
ing that young firs were shooting up in the upper part of it, 
determined to let them grow, and they soon formed a flourish¬ 
ing grove. As soon as they were well grown, a fine spring 
appeared in place of the occasional rill, and furnished abun¬ 
dant water in the longest droughts. For forty or fifty years, 
this spring was considered the best in the Clos du Doubs. A 
few years since, the grove was felled, and the ground turned 
again to a pasture. The spring disappeared with the wood, 
and is now as dry as it was ninety years ago.” * 
“ The influence of the forest on springs,” says Hummel, 
ct is strikingly shown by an instance at Heilbronn. The woods 
on the hills surrounding the town are cut in regular succession 
every twentieth year. As the annual cuttings approach a cer¬ 
tain point, the springs yield less water, some of them none at 
all; but as the young growth shoots up, they flow more and 
more freely, and at length bubble up again in all their original 
abundance.” f 
Piper states the following case : “ Within about half a mile 
of my residence there is a pond upon which mills have been 
standing for a long time, dating back, I believe, to the first 
settlement of the town. These have been kept in constant 
operation until within some twenty or thirty years, when the 
supply of water began to fail. The pond owes its existence to 
a stream which has its source in the hills which stretch some 
miles to the south. Within the time mentioned, these hills, 
which were clothed with a dense forest, have been almost 
entirely stripped of trees; and to the wonder and loss of the 
mill owners, the water in the pond has failed, except in the 
season of freshets; and, wEat was never heard of before, the 
stream itself has been entirely dry. Within the last ten years 
a new growth of wood has sprung up on most of the land 
formerly occupied by the old forest; and now the water runs 
* TJeber die Entwaldung dev Gebirge , pp. 20 et seqq. 
f Physische Geographic, p. 32. 
