Wood River times. [volume] (Hailey, Idaho) 1882-1915, 1886-11-16
Change in Climate.

Felix L. Oswald in the April North |
American Revieu says: In Pennsyl- |
yauia, 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 year,
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 obviates those perils
by absorbing, or at least retarding. the
drainage even of the steepest slopes,
to a degree which almost exempts from
inundations 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
there are mountain slopes that could
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
| stablshment-the furnace of the
Ducktown copper mine-has devoured
the trees of a 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 a
hint, which the Spanish Moors acted
upon in the construction of the vast
aberkets, or river reservoirs, which
regulated the water supply of the
South Spanish vegas. Wherever q
river expands into q 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 o.
their effiuent streams against the flood:
, of the upper tributaries. A rain tina
would cause the overflow of narrow
mountain stream in a single day Nigh
continue for weeks without effecting 81
4 appreciable change in the level of
large lake. A smaller lake, or even
mere bahia, as the Spanish-American
!. call the expansions of their coast riv
ers, would at least compromise matter
r by distributing the deluge over bash
where evaporation, and especially TIL
water-absorbing alluvium of an OK
tended shore-linc, would diminish it
t volume. while the slower rise of tn
expansive water-level would retar
that of the effiuent stream. Violen
northeast storms have now and the
D "backed" the waters of Lake Erie ii
" inc Nld0dId INV Sduh NlSlOlI UclO'
its normal el,-once so much, il
= decd, as to expose the naked rocks {
the Horseshoe Fall, and the sudde
bursting of an ice-gorge might produc
the opposite effect; but there is no cas-
on record that wet-spring. or the sue
D den thawing of the snow in the uppt
lake region. had endangered the rive
suburbs of Buffalo. Between LAX
Leman and the hills of st. Rambel
the level of the Rhone varies only
!, few feet; below its confluence with tn
|, Ardeche and other torrents OF tt
y Cevennes, its valley is subject to inul
dations which, in the words of Blanqu
have repeatedly done more mischi
than an invading army of wanda
could have perpotrated in the san
Z. time.
SHIT Gu,S CTR Il WI II i'm q, a. n re