Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1884-05-29
Change in Climate.

Felix l.. Oswald in the April North
american ReUieW says: In Pennsyl-
vania, Kentucky, West Virginia. and
Tennessee, the lumber trade increases
more than any other branch of indus
try, and, in the river valleys, the stead
lily increasing maxima of high-water
marks, as well as the devastating floods
of 1882, 1888, and the present wear.
are therefore only playful illusions to
the probabilities of the future.
But while droughts can be counter
acted only by widespread system of
cooperative tree-culture, spring floods
admit of more local remedies. With
rare exceptions they originate in noun
tain countries, where two causes COM
bine TO increase the evil effects of for
est destruction: the steepness of the
drainage slopes, which pour down the
floods before any considerable portion
can be absorbed by the soil, and the
effects of premature spring seasons,
which swell the torrents with the thaw-
ing SHOWS of the upland regions. Ar
boreal vegetation obyiates those periIs
by absor bling, OF at least retarding, the
drainage even of the steepest slopes,
to q degree which almost exempts from
foundations the river valleys Of dense
ly wooded hill countries and the
only radical remedy would. therefore,
be to protect or replant the forests bOr-
dering the valleys of all the upper
water-courses. Mountain land is SO
cheap that extensive tracts could be re-
bought by the Government at nominal
prices; and in the upper Alleghanies
elA
be intruSted to their natural safe
guards-their steepness and their rock
mess. Still, here and there local de-
mand for fuel has overcome such OBJ
stacles. High up in the alpine valleys
of Polk County, Tennessee, single
stablishment-the furnace of the
Ducktown copper mine-has devoured
the trees of . hundred hills. The
Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad has
done the same for the mountains of
West Virginia, and the Virginia and
Tennessee Railroad for the valley of
the upper James River.
In such valleys, and especially where
the nature of the soil threatens to de-
lay the growth of young trees, the re-
planting of the forest should be supple
mented by precautions against immedi-
ate dangers. Nature has given us
hint, which the Spanish Moors acted
upon in the construction of the vast
0LberketS, or river reservoirs, which
regulated the water supply of the
South Spanish vegas. Wherever a
river expands into chain of lakes we
find that such lakes serve not only as
reserve basins in all but the dryest
seasons. but also protect the valleys of
their effiuent streams against the floods
of the upper tributaries. A rain that
would cause the overflow of narrow
mountain stream in single day might
continue for weeks without efectinq IN
appreciable change in the level of a
large lake. A smaller lake, or even a
mere bahia, as the Spanish-Americans
call the expansions of their coast riv-
crs, would at least compromise matters
by distributing the deluge over basin
where evaporation, and especially the
water absorbing alluVium of an ex-
tended shore-linc, would diminish it's
volume, while the slower rise of the
expansive water-leyel would retard
that of the eff1uent stream. Violent
northeast storms have now and then
the Niagara River sank visiblv below
its normal level,-once so much, in
deed, as to expose the naked rocks of
the Horseshoe Fall, and the sudden
bursting of an ice-gorge might produce
the opposite effect; but there is no case
on record that a wet-spring, or the sud-
den thawing of the snow in the upper
lake region, had endangered the river
suburbs Of Buffalo. Between Lake
Leman and the hills of St Rambert
the level of the Rhone varies only
few feet; below its confluence with the
Ardeche and other torrents OF the
CeVennes, it's valley is subject to mum
dations which, in the words of BIanqui,
have repeatedly dcne more mischief
than an invading army of yandals
could have perpetrated in the same
time.