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of the island, where tradition says there
was formerly a large forest." The same
story might be told even more forcibly
of Asia-Minor, once the garden of the
world, filled with densely-peoled
towns, now for the most part treeless,
waterless, sterile, and almost depopulat-
ed. Of Spain it has been said that the
loss of her wealth and power, and the
decay of her Empire, were due more
than anything else to the impoverish-
ment of her soil through the destruction
of her forests. Describing Central Spain
Sir A. Ford writes: "The denuded table-
lands are exposed to the fierce suns of
the summer and to the fiercer snows and
winds of winter, while the bulk of the
peninsula offer a picture of neglect and
desolation, moral and physical, which it
is painful to contemplate. Extensive
steppes and plans are burnt by the sun
in summer and swept by the icy winds
in winter; while rain is so rare in the
tablelands that the annual fall does not
exceed 9 inches, and there are districts
on which no shower descends for eight
of nine months together. The face of
the earth is tanned tawny, and baked
into a veritable 'terra cotta,' and every-
thing seems dead and burnt as on a
funeral pile." Mr G. Chisholm, one of
the most eminent of living geographers,
describing the basin of the Po, in North-
ern Italy, says of the risk of floods to
which it is constantly exposed:-
"These dangers have been much increas-
ed by the wanton destruction of the
forests of the Alps and Apennines, for
when the shelter of the woods is gone,
the heavy rains of summer easily wash
the soil from the slopes down into the
rivers, and many an upland pasture has
by this process been turned into bare
rock." Referring elsewhere to the
malarial swamps in North Italy, the
same authority writes:-"Since ancient
times, the extent of marsh has in many
places been increased through the ex-
cessive clearning of mountain forests,
causing rain-water to rush unchecked
down the mountain siades, and the rivers
to swell into devastating floods."

THE CASE OF FRANCE

But perhaps the best illustration of the
evils and dangers to which all countries
are exposed by the process of deforesta-
tion is to be found in the meteorological
and topographical history of France
during the past century. Dr. Croumbie
Brown, in his work on "Reboissement
(reforestation) in France," gives a com-
plete account of the causes that led to
the clearing of the forests in the Lower
Alps and the Pyrenees, and the results
that followed in the form of landslips
and floods. The details that he gives of
the devastations committed by the
mountain torrents, augmention every
year with the cutting out of forest and
undergrowth form a picture that has
been thruthfully described as appalling.
"The disappearance of the forests from
the mountains," writes Captain Camp-
bell-Walker, "gave up the soil to the
action of the waters which swept it
away into the valleys, and then the
torresnts, becoming more and more devas-
tating, buried extensive tracts under
their deposits, tracts which will prob-
ably be for ever withdrawn from agricul-
ture." And not only has irreparable in-
jury been thus inflected upong the coun-
try, but enormous losses of property,
and even of human life, have been sus-
tained as a direct consequence of these
same baneful causes. During 1875 the
loss of property in the South of France
through floods was estimated by the
State at £3,000,000, and in addition at
least 3,000 people lost their lives.
"The indirect results in the shame of
temporary or permanent damage to agri-
cultural districts by the deposit of
stones and shingle brought from the
mountains by the flood waters cannot
be estimaged, still less damage to
pastoral lands on the mountains them-
selves. It may be stated generally that
the results of excessive clearing of for-
rests and abuse of pasturage on the
French Alps and Pyrenees have reduced
their capacity as a sheep and goat carry-
ing area to such an extent that they
cannot feed half the stock that grazed