64 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



of virgin soil. When one region was deforested, and covered with 

 grass they transferred the seat of their civilization to another. Hunt- 

 ington maintains they could not have cut down the forest with their 

 crude stone instruments ^ but a people that could quarry, transport 

 and carve the stone monuments they did, surely could cut down forests. 

 This "cunuco" form of agriculture, as it is called in some Spanish 

 American nations, prevails all through the tropics and is the chief 

 cause of the destruction of the forests. Over these areas, in many 

 places wide in extent, "the forest is not only conquered, it is extermi- 

 nated beyond any possible chance of natural recovery." 



^In this connection the reader is referred to Lange's ("The Lower Amazon," 

 pp. 228-230) description of diorite axes and the methods one of the Indian 

 tribes of the Amazon used in cutting down trees, to make a forest clearing. 



