That remarkable man, Humbolt, has reduced it almost to a
demonstration, that the streams of our country, fail in proportion to
the destruction of its timber. And of course, if the streams fail, our
seasons will be worse; it must get drier and drier in proportion.
Humbolt, speaking of the Valley of Araguay in Venezuela, says that the
lake receded as agriculture advanced, until the beautiful plantations
of sugar-cane, banana and cotton-trees, were established on its banks,
which (banks) year after year were farther from them. After the
separation of that Province from Spain, and the decline of agriculture
amid the desolating wars which swept over this beautiful region, the
process of clearing was arrested, and old lands grew up in trees with
that rapidity common to the tropics, and in a few years the
inhabitants were alarmed by a rise of the waters, and an inundation of
their choice plantations.
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