Dr Forry on the Climate of the United Slates. 233 



of the world, as already remarked, warrant the conclusion, 

 that the temperature of a locality undergoes changes in any 

 ratio of progression ; but conversely, as all facts tend to 

 establish the position that climates are stable. We are led 

 to believe that the changes or perturbations of temperature 

 to which a locality is subject, are produced by some regular 

 oscillations, the periods of which are to us unknown. That 

 climates are susceptible of melioration by the extensive 

 changes produced on the surface of the earth by the labours 

 of man, has been pointed out already ; but these effects are 

 extremely subordinate, compared with the modification in- 

 duced by the striking features of physical geography — the 

 ocean, lakes, mountains, the opposite coasts of continents, 

 and their prolongation and enlargement toward the poles. 



But even Malte Brun has ventured the assertion, that 

 " France, Germany, and England, not more than twenty 

 centuries ago, resembled Canada and Chinese Tartary — 

 countries situated, as well as our Europe, at a mean dis- 

 tance between the equator and the pole." This illustration is 

 certainly very unhappy; for rejecting the pretended antiquity 

 of the Chinese — the fables in relation to Fohi and Hoang-Ti, 

 the former of whom, we are told, founded the empire of 

 China about five thousand years ago, we must, with Malte 

 Brun, date its origin at least eight or nine centuries before 

 Christ. China should, therefore, possess a milder climate 

 than Europe, inasmuch as agriculture is represented to have 

 been always in the most flourishing condition. As the prac- 

 tice of fallowing is unknown, almost the whole arable land 

 is constantly tilled, and even the steepest mountains, cut 

 into terraces, are brought under cultivation. Now, as this 

 country still presents a climate as austere as that of Canada 

 in the same latitudes, the conclusion is irresistible, that in 

 proportion as the leading physical characters of a region are 

 immutable in their nature, does error pervade the remark of 

 Malte Brun — " That vanquished nature yields its empire to 

 man, who thus creates a country for himself." A partial 

 view of this question, indeed, not unfrequently leads to the 

 most unwarranted conclusions. Any changes in the climate 

 of the United States as yet perceived, are very far from jus- 



