¹ We may direct attention, as bearing somewhat on this question, to the protest entered by Mr. Verplank Colvin in the twenty-fourth annual report of the New York State Museum of Natural History, against any further destruction of the forests of the Adirondack wilderness. He calls to mind the fact that year by year the water supply of the principal rivers of New York and her canals experiences notable diminution, and sees in this the result of the clearing of the slopes of the high mountains of Central New York, and looks forward to the time when, if these operations are not checked, the Hudson will cease to be navigable more than half-way to Albany, and other streams will suffer in proportion. A précis of his arguments is given in Harper's Weekly for August 10th, 1872, page 623.