Captain Zargo, a Portuguese, landed in Madeira in 1419. Dr. Fruc-tuosa gives an account of the expedition. He says Zargo found the Island one vast impenetrable forest, and fired the woods in order to pave the way for agricultural pursuits. This fire he says continued burning for seven whole years, and this statement receives full credit in the Old World. We in America, who know how soon the most terrific forest fire is humbled by a rain storm, can only ask, was there no rain in all Madeira in these seven long years ? But the woods themselves answer the question. There could not have been such woods in a rainless climate. Yet it is measurably on such "facts" as these that theories of rainfall and forests have been deduced.