Gabe,
I went back to the original quote, which is on page 23, not 25. My bad. In its entirety, "The original heavy growth of timber covered the country and the streams and swamps carried very much more water than since the iron horse came snorting through the land, blowing sparks and landing the careless pioneer from whose clearing many a destructive forest fire has spread, working havoc among the trees and consuming the vegetable accumulations of centuries on the surface of the soil."
The sentence is long-winded and awkward. The word
than is used is used to introduce a second element in a comparison. He is comparing pre and post railroad Pine Barrens surficial water conditions. I read it to mean there was more water before the fire increase, not less. What is the group wisdom on this one?
Hall was a newspaper man, not a hydrologist. That said, many of the old timers were great observationists even if they lacked scientific training. Experiential knowledge is still considered a valuable complement to scientific knowledge. Most of the literature I have indicates a steady regional drop, not a rise, occurred since settlement.
An excerpt from
Pine Barrens Wetland: Geographical Reflections of South Jersey's Periglacial Legacy (Demitroff, 2007: 151–152):
Accounts of the region’s desiccation go back to the time of Peter Kalm, the botanist. Upon his visit to Raccoon (Swedesboro) in November 1748, he recorded some accounts of smaller lakes, brooks, springs, and rivers drying up over a period of many years (Kalm 1770: 185-187). The flow of larger rivers was reported to have remained about the same. To Mickle (1845: 150), “the fall of the waters, not only of our inland ponds, but of the creeks [and of course the river with which they connect] is a well established phenomena. In nearby Pennsylvania, the disappearance of creeks and “the diminution of waters [generally], which formerly abounded in this part of America” (Brissot de Warville 1792: 341) was attributed to deforestation. Abbott (1907: 62-65) noted the drying of brook streams over centurial to millennial timescale, likely caused by deforestation, land drainage and field cultivation.”
It was great to cross paths in the Arts & Sciences parking lot at Stockton last week. Too bad you hard to work that day. We had an extra seat in the field trip van and big heavy shovel with your name on it! Next time.
S-M
