302 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF NEW JERSEY. 



of Fontainebleau (40,000 acres), for instance, is on a bed of dry 

 sand. Remove this forest, and 98 per cent, of it would become 

 a desert of drifting sand. It should always be borne in mind 

 that sandy soils in regions in which there are sufficient warmth 

 and humidity, if left to nature and freed from the pernicious 

 interference of the human species, fires and browsing animals, 

 will in the course of ages become forest-clad and fertile. By 

 forest-clad I do not mean a meagre growth of trees and bushes, 

 but a rich, dense forest, with a soil which, under the influence 

 of leaf-mold, will ever improve in quality, both physically and 

 chemically. By the application of skill and knowledge this 

 process may be, of course, hastened. There are French foresters 

 who have said that were it not for the camels and Arabs of the 

 Sahara the oases of vegetation would have gradually spread and 

 covered a large proportion of that barren waste. On the other 

 hand a magnificent forest on fertile, sandy soil can be quickly 

 converted into a sterile desert by the reckless removal of fer- 

 tility from the surface. Those lands in Southern New Jersey 

 which are being subjected to the same or similar processes 

 through which the Campine of Belgium has passed belong to 

 the Beacon Hill Formation, which is mapped and described in 

 the Annual Report of the State Geologist for 1898. 



In referring to this region, Mr. Knapp says : "In the vicinity 

 of Hammonton many clearings have been made on this forma- 

 tion and have been found to be profitable for the cultivation of 

 berries. It is possible that considerable tracts elsewhere might 

 be used in the same way, but at present a very small proportion 

 only of this formation is in cultivation. The formation as a 

 whole seems to invite forest culture rather than the ordinary 

 form of agriculture." He also assures us that although the soil 

 is coarse, loose and white, its surface appearance is worse than 

 its real character. 



The Dunes and Landes of Gascony* 



In this chapter I shall refer mainly to the Dunes and Landes 

 of Gascony, one of the stereotyped examples of the complete 

 reclamation of an almost uninhabitable and unproductive waste- 

 land. The two principal works I have consulted on the subject 



