236 
DESTRUCTIVE ACTION OF TORRENTS. 
the preservation of every influence that tends to maintain an 
equilibrium of temperature and humidity is of cardinal im¬ 
portance. The felling of the Adirondack woods would ulti¬ 
mately involve for Northern and Central New York conse¬ 
quences similar to those which have resulted from the lay¬ 
ing bare of the southern and western declivities of the French 
Alps and the spurs, ridges, and detached peaks in front of 
them. 
It is true that the evils to be apprehended from the clearing 
of the mountains of New York may be less in degree than 
those which a similar cause has produced in Southern France, 
where the intensity of its action has been increased by the 
inclination of the mountain declivities, and by the peculiar 
geological constitution of the earth. The degradation of the 
soil is, perhaps, not equally promoted by a combination of the 
same circumstances, in any of the American Atlantic States, 
but still they have rapid slopes and loose and friable soils 
enough to render widespread desolation certain, if the further 
destruction of the woods is not soon arrested. The effects of 
clearing are already perceptible in the comparatively unvio¬ 
lated region of which I am speaking. The rivers which rise 
m it, flow with diminished currents in dry seasons, and with 
augmented volumes of water after heavy rains. They bring 
down much larger quantities of sediment, and the increasing 
obstructions to the navigation of the Hudson, which are ex¬ 
tending themselves down the channel in proportion as the 
fields are encroaching upon the forest, give good grounds for 
the fear of serious injury to the commerce of the important 
towns on the upper waters of that river, unless measures are 
taken to prevent the expansion of u improvements ” which 
have already been carried beyond the demands of a wise 
economy. 
I have stated, in a general way, the nature of the evils in 
question, and of the processes by which they are produced; 
but I shall make their precise character and magnitude better 
understood by presenting some descriptive and statistical de¬ 
tails of facts of actual occurrence. I select for this purpose the 
