634 DUPONCHEL’S PROPOSALS. 
an argillaceous deposit which is to be mingled with the eal- 
careous slime, and distributed over the Landes by watercourses 
constructed for the purpose. By this means, he supposes that 
a very fertile soil may be formed, and so graded in depositing 
as to secure for it a good drainage. 
In order that nothing may be wanting to recommend the 
project, Duponchel suggests that, as some rivers of Western 
France are gold-bearing, it is probable that gold enough may 
be collected by washing the sands to reduce materially the ex- 
pense of such operations. 
In the Landes of Gascony alone, he believes that 3,000,000 
acres, now barren, might be made productive at a moderate ex- 
pense, and that similar methods might be advantageously em- 
ployed in France over an extent of not less than 80,000,000 
acres now almost wholly valueless. 
The successful execution of the plan would increase the fer- 
tile territory of France by an area of four or five times the ex- 
tent of Sicily or of Sardinia. 
There seems to be no reason why the same method, applied 
for such different purposes, should necessarily be destructive in 
the one case while it is so advantageous in the other. A wiser 
economy might bring about a harmony of action between the 
miners and the agriculturists of California, and the soil which 
is removed by the former as an incumbrance, judiciously de- 
posited, might become for the latter a source of wealth more 
solid and enduring than the gold now obtained by such a sacri- 
fice of agricultural interests. 
Action of Man on the Weather. 
Espy’s well-known suggestion of the possibility of causing 
rain artificially, by kindling great fires, is not likely to be turned 
to practical account, but the speculations of this able meteor- 
ologist are not, for that reason, to be rejected as worthless. His 
labors exhibit great industry in the collection of facts, much 
ingenuity in dealing with them, remarkable insight into the 
