210 
THE FOREST IN FRANCE. 
The Forest in Winter. 
To estimate rightly the importance of the forest as a nat¬ 
ural apparatus for accumulating the water that falls upon the 
surface and transmitting it to the subjacent strata, we must 
compare the condition and properties of its soil with those of 
cleared and cultivated earth, and examine the consequently 
different action of these soils at different seasons of the year. 
The disparity between them is greatest in climates where, as 
in the Northern American States and in the North of Europe, 
the open ground freezes and remains impervious to water 
during a considerable part of the winter; though, even in 
climates where the earth does not freeze at all, the woods have 
still an important influence of the same character. The differ¬ 
ence is yet greater in countries which have regular wet and 
dry seasons, rain being very frequent in the former period, 
while, in the latter, it scarcely occurs at all. These countries 
lie chiefly in or near the tropics, but they are not wanting in 
higher latitudes; for a large part of Asiatic and even of 
European Turkey is almost wholly deprived of summer rains. 
In the principal regions occupied by European cultivation, 
and where alone the questions discussed in this volume are 
recognized as having, at present, any practical importance, 
rain falls at all seasons, and it is to these regions that, on this 
point as well as others, I chiefly confine my attention. 
The influence of the forest upon the w r aters of the earth 
has been more studied in France than in any other part of the 
civilized world, because that country has, in recent times, suf¬ 
fered most severely from the destruction of the woods. But 
in the southern provinces of that empire, where the evils 
resulting from this cause are most sensibly felt, the winters are 
not attended with much frost, while, in Northern Europe, 
where the winters are rigorous enough to freeze the ground to 
the depth of some inches, or even feet, a humid atmosphere 
and frequent summer rains prevent the drying up of the 
springs observed in southern latitudes when the woods are 
gone. For these reasons, the specific character of the forest, 
