MAN'S DEPENDENCE ON THE EARTH, 107 



heat, its air and water will be absorbed into the rocks or will enter 

 into new combinations. As man's existence was not possible under 

 primitive conditions, so the time will come when the earth will no 

 longer furnish him even a minimum of the necessaries of life. Even 

 now life is not as exuberant as it was, although it is more varied. 



The first care of a rational being whose resources are limited 

 should be to husband them. Instead of doing this, we are spending 

 lavishly, and seemingly wasting them all we can, and are destroy- 

 ing, without thought of the far future, the stores which the earth has 

 laid up in the vast ages of the past. Even what we call improve- 

 ment or development of a region is often its ultimate devastation, 

 an improvident exploitation, removing from the earth what can not 

 be restored to it, exhausting present supplies at the cost of the future. 

 The grand discoveries on which we pride ourselves are often a con- 

 tribution to this process, furnishing new means of expediting the 

 waste and thus helping to bring on the final ruin. 



Without indulging in too gloomy visions, it is a real truth that 

 our exploitation of the earth's resources is pursued too recklessly. 

 Consequently, we find that formerly fertile regions have become 

 sterile; the productive deposits of our soils are undergoing exhaus- 

 tion; the earth that should ripen our crops is allowed to flow into 

 the rivers, making them turbid, and to be carried to the sea; foun- 

 tains dry up, streams lose their way, and climates deteriorate. 



The remedy by which these processes shall be prevented from 

 ultimately making the planet unfit for habitation is to be found, in- 

 stead of the present haphazard course, in applying rational and scien- 

 tific methods in the exploitation of the earth's resources. The prin- 

 ciple which, because it controls his development, man should never 

 forget, is that he is a terrestrial being, that he is nothing without the 

 earth, from which he can not disengage himself; and that the only 

 true civilization is that which is developed in harmony and conformity 

 with the laws that rule the planet. — Translated for the Popular 

 Science Monthly from the Revue Scientifique. 



The German committee on antarctic exploi'ation have presented to the 

 Geographentag' a scheme for an expedition to remain two years within the 

 Antarctic Circle, while a second vessel carries on hydrographic work on the 

 edge of the ice. The longitude of Kerguelen Island is mentioned as the 

 most suitable I'egion for attempting to force a way southward. The co- 

 operation of the observatories in Cape Town, Melbourne, and Mauritius 

 would give special value to the meteorological and magnetic observations 

 made in the selected part of the antarctic area. Two vessels of about four 

 hundred tons would carry each four olRcers, four members of a scientific 

 staff, and a crew of twenty-two. The whole cost is estimated at less than 

 $250,000, and the German people are to be appealed to for the money. 



