GEORGE PERKINS MARSH. 451 



Waters and their management are treated with the same mastery 

 of details. It is shown how, by mau's various devices for obstructing, 

 directing, and in geueral governing water, the action of tides and the 

 fauna and flora of regions may be altogether changed, whether bene- 

 ficially or injuriously. 



Even dry sands are invested with an interest not their own. The 

 value of dunes, and the details of their wise management, are made 

 the subject of one of the most interesting chapters of this most inter- 

 estinof book. 



But the part of the work which will pei'haps most engage the atten- 

 tion of the general reader is the concluding chapter, in which Mr. 

 Marsh has examined by the light of wisdom and experience all the great 

 projects proposed within the last quarter of a century for the extensive 

 modification of the face of Nature. In this chapter he discusses such 

 vast su])jects as the cutting of isthmuses like Suez and Darien, the 

 proposed canal to open the Dead Sea, the Caspian and Azof Canal, the 

 flooding of the Lybian Desert, and the diversion of the Colorado River 

 for the reclaiming of the great Colorado Desert, and incidentally dis- 

 cusses such living questions as the damage caused by hydraulic mining, 

 and even the extent to which volcanic action may be subject to man'3 

 control. And lest the consideration of such immense results of man's 

 action should blind the reader to the equal imjjortance of little agencies 

 repeatedly brought into action, the author concludes his work with 

 this eminently philosophical remark. " In the vocabulary of Nature," 

 says he, " little and great are terms of comparison only ; she knows 

 no trifles, and her laws are as inflexible in dealing with an atom as 

 with a continent or a planet." 



This last remark is but one of many keen and clever bits of philoso- 

 phy with which the woi'k abounds. Mr. Marsh keeps ever in view 

 the peculiar needs and dangers of the two nations that shared his best 

 affections, America and Italy, and he is abundant in practical sugges- 

 tions for both countries. His views of history are large and clear, 

 especially in regard to the influence of education and of civil and re- 

 ligious liberty. The man's generous nature appears in this, as well as 

 in the frank tribute which he willingly pays to Elisee Reclus, his only 

 rival in this branch of literature. 



Mr. Marsh's style is always clear and direct. In his choice of words 

 he is not rigidly a purist. "When such words as "degradation," mean- 

 ing the wearing away of the surface of a hill-side, or the like, or 

 "flotation," come handy, lie uses them without apology. Even the 

 American words " lumber " and " lumberman " he does not disdain. 



