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we disarm that criticism which their truthful simplicity would natu- 

 rally evoke, were they original contributions to our pages : — 



Man and Forests. — " Turning our attention, lastly, to the human 

 race, we see that nations in the lowest state of development are some- 

 times closely connected with the forests. In the colder lands, where 

 the trees ordinarily bear no edible, or at least no well-flavoured or 

 nourishing fruits, it is the game which chiefly furnishes the inha- 

 bitants with food and clothing ; these races then appear chiefly as 

 hunters, such as the aborigines of North America. In the torrid 

 zone, on the contrary, races in the same stage of culture live princi- 

 pally on the fruits of the trees or the pith of the trunks, like some of 

 the tribes of Brazil, some of the inhabitants of the Indian Archipe- 

 lago, and several races of negroes. South America even affords an 

 example of a race who, almost like monkeys, live upon the trees ; 

 whose existence, in fact, is to a great extent bound to a certain spe- 

 cies of tree. There are the Guai^auni, at the mouth of the Orinoco, 

 who live by and upon the Mauritia palm. While the ground is 

 flooded, mats woven from the leaf-stalks of those palms are suspended 

 between the trunks ; these mats are covered with clay, so that fires 

 can be made upon them, and here the Guarauni sleep, and pass a 

 great portion of their lives. The trunk furnishes a fecula ; the juice, 

 a palm-wine ; and the fruits are well-flavoured, mealy at first, and 

 afterwards sweet. Nomadic races, on the other hand, generally avoid 

 forests ; extensive grazing plains, fertile valleys, or the slopes of 

 mountains, affording rich pasture-land, are the best fitted for the 

 migratory life which they lead, and for the support of their domestic 

 animals. As soon as a race rises to agriculture, it becomes hostile to 

 the forests. The trees are in the way of the spade and plough, and 

 the wood gives less booty than the field, the garden, or the vineyard. 

 The forest, therefore, falls beneath the axe, fire consumes the fallen 

 trunks and branches, and the ashes manure the soil, giving for some 

 years an extraordinarily rich harvest, especially in the dense tropical 

 primaeval forests. When, after the lapse of some years, the fertility 

 decreases, a new portion of the wood is felled and burnt, and thus 

 man proceeds unsparingly with the destruction of forests ; sometimes 

 the conflagration spreads further than was intended, and the destruc- 

 tion is thus increased. This is the course pursued by the peasants of 

 Norway and Sweden, as also by the colonists of North America, of 

 Brazil, Mexico, the Cape, Java, and in every place where agriculture 

 first appears, or commences its first constant and uninterrupted ex- 

 tension. With the increase of population this destruction of the 



