PHYSICAL CONSERVATION AND RESTORATION. 53 
ture and precipitation, but to the more easily ascertained and 
perhaps more important local changes produced by these ope- 
rations in the temperature and the hygrometric state of the 
superficial strata of the earth, and in its spontaneous vegetable 
and animal products. 
The rapid extension of railroads, which now everywhere 
keep pace with, and sometimes even precede, the occupation 
of new soil for agricultural purposes, furnishes great facilities 
for enlarging our knowledge of the topography of the territory 
they traverse, because their cuttings reveal the composition 
and general structure of surface, and the inclination and eleva- 
tion of their lines constitute known hypsometrical sections, 
which give numerous points of departure for the measure- 
ment of higher and lower stations, and of course for deter- 
mining the relief and depression of surface, the slope of the 
beds of watercourses, and many other not less important ques- 
tions.* 
* Railroad surveys must be received with great caution where any motive 
exists for cooking them. Capitalists are shy of investments in roads with 
steep grades, and of course it is important to make a fair show of facilities in 
obtaining funds for new routes. Joint-stock companies have no souls; their 
managers, In general, no consciences. Cases can be cited where engineers 
and directors of railroads, with long grades above one hundred feet to the 
mile, have regularly sworn in their annual reports, for years in succession, 
that there were no grades upon their routes exceeding half that elevation. In 
fact, every person conversant with the history of these enterprises knows that 
in their public statements falsehood is the rule, truth the exception. 
What I am about to remark is not exactly relevant to my subject ; but it is 
hard to ‘‘ get the floor” in the world’s great debating society, and when a 
speaker who has anything to say once finds access to the public ear, he must 
make the most of his opportunity, without inquiring too nicely whether his 
observations are ‘‘in order.” I shall harm no honest man by endeavoring, as 
I have often done elsewhere, to excite the attention of thinking and conscien- 
tious men to the dangers which threaten the great moral and even political in- 
terests of Christendom, from the unscrupulousness of the private associations 
that now control the monetary affairs, and regulate the transit of persons and 
property, in almost every civilized country. More than one American State 
is literally governed by unprincipled corporations, which not only defy the legis- 
lative power, but have, too often, corrupted even the administration of jus- 
