220 



SOME CHANGES IN THE NATUEAL HISTORY OF 



THE NEIGHBOITEHOOD OF EOSS DUEING THE 



PAST THIETY YEAES. 



By Mr. Henky Sodthall, F.R. Met. Soc. 



" What exhibitions various hath the world 

 Witness'd of mutability, in all 

 That we account most durable below ! 

 Change is the diet on which all subsist, 

 Created changeable, and change at last 

 Destroys them. Skies uncertain, now the heat 

 Transmitting cloudless, and the solar beam 

 Now quenching in a boundless sea of clouds — 

 Calm and alternate storm, moisture and drought, 

 Invigorate by turns the springs of life 

 In all that live, plant, animal, and man, 

 And in conclusion mar them. Nature's threads, 

 Fine passing thought e'en in her coarsest works, 

 Delight in agitation, yet sustain 

 The force that agitates, not unimpair'd ; 

 But, worn by frequent impulse, to the cause 

 Of their best tone their dissolution owe." 



COWPEK. 



The life-time of a generation is undoubtedly too brief a period to exhibit much 

 evidence of change in the natural world, and yet it may be interesting to inquire if 

 such evidence exists, and to what extent it has been noted. The absence of cor- 

 rect data for comparison often presents an obstacle not easily overcome, and mere 

 hearsay or tradition is unreliable, since comparatively few are to be trusted as re- 

 gards memory or accuracy. 



It may be well at the outset to consider what are the principal causes of change 

 in the general features of a district, and also in the development of animal and 

 vegetable life within its borders, and then to consider how far any of these causes 

 have affected our own district. Perhaps these may be classified under the follow- 

 ing heads : — 



1. — The extension of buildings and manufacture in towns and villages. 



2. — The pulling down of old walls and buildings. 



3. — The making of railroads and other highways. 



4. — The filling up of canals. 



5. — The clearing or cutting down of woods. 



6. — The drainage of bogs and pools. 



7, — The reclamation of waste lands and enclosure of commons. 



8. — Other changes in the cultivation of lands, such as removal of hedges and 

 ditches, &c. 



9. — The preservation of game leading to the destruction of many wild animali 

 birds, &c. 



