PREFACE TO THE PRESENT EDITION. 
In preparing for the press an Italian translation of this 
work, published at Florence in 1870, I made numerous correc- 
tions in the statement of both facts and opinions; I incorpo- 
rated into the text and introduced in notes a large amount of 
new data and other illustrative matter; I attempted to improve 
the method by differently arranging many of the minor subdi- 
visions of the chapters; and I suppressed a few passages which 
seemed to me superfluous. 
In the present edition, which is based on the Italian transla- 
tion, I have made many further corrections and changes of 
arrangement of the original matter; I have rewritten a con- 
siderable portion of the work, and have made, in the text and 
in notes, numerous and important additions, founded partly on 
observations of my own, partly on those of other students of 
Physical Geography, and though my general conclusions re- 
main substantially the same as those I first announced, yet IL 
think I may claim to have given greater completeness and a 
more consequent and logical form to the whole argument. 
