Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1889-11-15

A recent number Of Lippincott's
Magazine has an interesting and in
structive article by Felix l. Oswald on
Floods and Their Causes in which
mention is made OF the ruin wrought
by destructive floods in the past The
writer says that under normal circum-
stances river floods are about as rare
as forest fires kindled by stroke OF
lightning, and are caused mainly by
the coincidence OF unusual contingent
ciesr He then briefly cites some OF
these unusual contingencies" such as
frozen grounds, early frosts. heavy I
snow-falls and violent rains in early |
spring. ice gorges, phenomenal raib-
falls, even in well-wooded countries |
land-slides. volcanic agencies, etc.
The remaining portion OF the article Is
as follows:
But the affiiction OF river floods in
their chronic and infinitely more per-
nicious form is caused almost exciu-
sively by the disappearance OF arbor-
cal vegetation, and especially by the
destruction OF the land-protecting
highland forests. 1t would be a mis-
take to suppose that the happy climate
| of Southern Europe in the golden age;
| OF pagan civilization was offset by
| neglect OF agricultural enterprise.
By the simple plan OF sparlng the
woods of the sleeper mountain ridges.
summer droughts and winter floods
were effectually prevented. at time
when the coast lands of the Mediterra-
mean were in the full productiseness
of their fields and the happiness OF
their inhabitants as superior to the
wretched deserts which now occupy
their geographical sites as the para
disc of the Tennessee highlands is TO
the naked sand hills OF Western Ari-
! zona With the disappearance OF
those forests began that era OF degen-
: Grafton which has almost sealed the
doom of the dying continent, and
/ which has wasted the peninsulas oil
, Southern Europe to mere skeletons OF
) the garden lands inhabited by the
/ nations of classic antiquity. Summer
, suns scorch the unprotected soil, ho
4 winds absorb its last vestige OF moist
, ure and fill the air with clouds OF loost
dust; the slopes of the naked mount
a aims are torn up into dee
n ravines. and their mold. carried
seward by every rainy spring
d is deposited in the form of tester
: ing, miasma- breeding coast swamps
s Springs fail, rivers shrink to feebl'
d streamlets, which at last become to-
e shallow even to supply the irrigation
:. canals by which the starving peasa mt
l. hoped to relief their distress. And al
K that misery is aggravated and PEI
n petuated by the ever-reeurring ravage
,r of the winter floods. The meltln
a. SHOWS. now no longer absorbed by tn
le sponge-Iike carpet of moss and tangle
p roots, run off the hill slopes like raj
a from tile-covered roof. and by the
le accumulation tend to deepen tt
7e poaees of the rocky ravines, which
re- a few hours pour down in mad was
to the moisture which once supplied tt
LIP springs of thousand mounta
'u brooks. Swollen by the turbid hoo'
Nj of countless simultaneous torrent
L the lowland rivers roll down va
lie masses of detritus, and by the i
Nv eyitable laws of gravitation cover Il
re fields of their upper valleys with t
heavy particles of that diluvium, sal
We aud coarse gravel. while the fertll1
er ing slime is carried down to add
stimulus to the rank morasses OF
maIarious delta. Thus shoaled
my yearly accommodations of sand banl
60 the river beds rise higher and high
err above their former channels, ana
I'M every spring, when more than usua
ra- heavy SHOWS are thawed by sud-
nto rains, the uplands send down delu
but which no dam can resist, and viii
re- often IL a single hour demolisf
O0,- barriers which thousands of workm
his have reared by mauy years labor
GOD This brief summary outlines an
SO perience which has repeated itseli
es- thousand times from the barren slol
han of Mount Lebanon to the naked terr'
lose lands of the Western Pyrenees. &
Tor which will not fail to enforce Its
'niy rible lessons on the inhabitants OF
mat Western continent. il the forests OF
geo highland regions should be surrend
rom ed to the land-blighting axe. A
zion wears ago a correspondent of the
eS- ular Science Monthly described
nate climatic amenities Of our Southwest
mes border States, where the sirocco OF
ms. Colorado deserts is often sccompar
IL Vi by violent sand-showers, which
or'n completely obliterated in few he
lieu the tract of the Los Angeles railrt
II a three weeks shower of that
Oso0 we're to descend on the guarded reg
~ eUo If Eas tern Pennsylvania the re
o0,OG0 ~-.~-~--
oa,ooo TO an extent which can be retire
o.o only by the labors OF many success
90, 90 generations. Another terrible Il
: the occurred but year ago. spreading
this havoc over an area of three hund
the and fifty thousand square miles,
sons Guiding some Of the most densely |
hole ulated districts of Eastern China
,nal. loss of life on that occasion has
mate computed to reach the appalling
has gregate of seven hundred and
gate thousand. even after deducting
/ all hundreds OF thousands that succnm
to the subsequent famine 49, n