e deep dry
beds, through which little water from the springs below ever
percolates to the surface, are not only of great advantage for
irrigating the crops on the surface, but for supplying water as they
flow along, to penetrate through these deep dry beds; and, as they
rise to the surface by capillary attraction, carrying along with them
the soluble salts which they pick up on their way. In Oude, as in all
the districts that extend along to the north of the Ganges, and south
of the Himmalaya chain, easterly winds prevail, and bring up moisture
from the sea of the Bay of Bengal. All these districts are, at the
same time, abundantly studded with groves of fine trees and jungle,
that attract this moisture to the earth in rain and dew. Through
Goozerat, Malwa, Berar, and Bundelkund, and all the districts
bordering the Nerbudda river, from its mouth to its sources, westerly
winds prevail, and bring up moisture from the Gulf of Cambay; and
these districts are all well studded with groves, &c., and single
trees, which act in the same manner, in attracting the moisture from
the atmosphere to the earth, in rain and dew. In Rajpootana and Sinde
no prevailing wind, I believe, comes from any sea nearer than the
Atlantic ocean; and there are but few trees to attract to the earth
the little moisture that the atmosphere contains. The rain that falls
over these countries is not, I believe, equal to more than one-third
of what falls over the districts, supplied from the Bay of Bengal, or
to one-fourth of what falls in those supplied from the Gulf of
Cambay. Our own districts of the N. W. Provinces, which intervene
between those north of the Ganges and Rajpootana, have the advantage
of rivers and canals; but their atmosphere is not so well supplied
with moisture from the sea, nor are they so well studded as they
ought to be with trees. The Punjab has still greater advantages from
numerous rivers, flowing from the Himmalaya chain, and is, like
Egypt, in some measure independent of moisture from the atmosphere as
far as tillage is concerned; but both would, no doubt, be benefited
by a greater abundance of trees. They not only tend to convey to and
retain moisture in the soil, and to purify the air for man, by giving
out oxygen and absorbing carbonic acid gas, but they are fertilizing
media, through which the atmosphere conveys to the soil most of the
carbon, and much of the ammonia, without which no soil can be
fertile. It is, I believe,