MAN'S DEPENDENCE ON THE EARTH. loi 



moist. Thus man's existence is dependent upon particular condi- 

 tions of climate, the nature of the ground, and especially the relief — 

 for the inequalities of relief, controlling the disposition of the water, 

 exclude him from all those depressed parts which are submerged, and 

 also from the highest spots that rise above the water. 



The importance of the development attained by man in any 

 region depends upon the same conditions. The wealth of a country 

 must be derived from agriculture, manufactures, or commerce. Be- 

 sides the factor of man's skill, it is the resultant of the natural con- 

 ditions that favor the development of plants, animals, minerals, 

 mechanical forces, and facility of communication; and all these are 

 governed ultimately, as it would be easy to demonstrate by going 

 into details, by these same conditions of climate, character of the 

 ground or geological structure, and relief. When we come to con- 

 sider the facilities of communication we find a new element entering 

 into the consideration — that of situation. Even supposing that their 

 resources are equal, we can not attribute the same value to two 

 countries, one of which borders on civilized countries, while the 

 other is in some out-of-the-way corner. Switzerland is worth more 

 than Lapland, ]!^orth America than South America, and Europe 

 than Africa. A country well situated on the sea enjoys vastly 

 greater advantages than a strictly inland country. 



Of those who have treated the question of the factors constituting 

 the value of a region of the earth, some have given pre-eminence to 

 geological constitution, others to the relief, and others to the climate. 

 N^one of these factors, it seems to me, can be regarded as exclusive, 

 and none as always more important than the others. The favorable 

 condition is a resultant to which all contribute. A thousand con- 

 trasts remain inexplicable if we presume that one of these factors 

 prevails at the expense of the others. How shall we account for the 

 dry soil of Beauce under the same amount of rainfall that once 

 converted the adjoining Sologne into an impracticable and fever- 

 laden marsh, unless we regard the nature of the soil — compact and 

 impenetrable in Sologne, permeable to excess in Beauce? How can 

 we understand that the terrible deserts of Turkestan and the famous 

 yellow lands of northern China, which bear such wonderful crops 

 unmanured, are constituted of the same loess, unless we recollect 

 that it rains regularly upon the loess regions of China, while those of 

 Turkestan are baked under an ever-cloudless sky? And how, if we 

 ignore the influence of climate, shall we explain that the high moun- 

 tain and table lands, centers of repulsion in the temperate zones, be- 

 come attractive under the equator? To attempt to explain such 

 facts by a single essential condition would be to understand only 

 part. In fact, all varieties of reliefs, ground structures, and situa- 



