PKEFACE TO THE EDITION OF 1874. 



In preparing for the press an Italian translation of this work, 

 published at Florence in 1870, I made numerous corrections in 

 the statement of both facts and opinions ; I incorporated into tha 

 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 subdivisions of the chap- 

 ters ; and I suppressed a few passages which seemed to me super- 

 fluous. 



In the present edition, which is based on the Italian transla- 

 tion, I have made many further corrections and changes of ar- 

 rangement of the original matter ; I have rewritten a cousidera 

 ble portion of the work, and have made, in the text and in notes, 

 numerous and important additions, founded partly on observa- 

 tions of my own, partly on those of other students of Physical 

 Geography, and though my general conclusions remain substan- 

 tially the same as those I first announced, yet I think I may claim 

 to have given greater completeness and a more consequent and 

 logical form to the whole argument. 



Since the pubhcation of the original edition, Mr. EHs^e Reclus, 

 in the second volume of his admirable work. La Terre (Paris, 

 1868), lately made accessible to English-reading students, has 

 treated, in a general way, the subject I have undertaken to dis- 

 cuss. He has, however, occupied himself with the conservative 

 and restorative, rather than with the destructive, effects of human 

 industry, and he has drawn an attractive and encouraging picture 



(xi) 



