104 THE FOREST LANDS OF FINLAND. 



flourish on soil enriched with the dust of the conquerors 

 in the former struggle, which has proved more favourable 

 to their growth than to the reproduction of the progeny of 

 those trees who had been for ages the holders of the soil. 

 And what thus seems to frequently occur without the 

 intervention of man, may be what is promoted by man's 

 industry and enterprise in his migrations from place to 

 place, in quest of a home, seeking rest and finding none.* 



* In a volume entitled Hydrology of South Africa t I have had occasion to cite the 

 following statement : 



' Almost everywhere,' says Schleiden, Professor of Botany in the University of Jena, 

 ' in the great characters in which nature writes her chronicles, in fossilized woods, 

 layers of peat, and the like, or even in the little notes of men, for instance in the records 

 of the Old Testament, occur proof, or at least indications, that these countries which are 

 now treeless and arid deserts, part of Egypt, Syria, Persia, and so forth, were formerly 

 thickly wooded, traversed by streams now dried up or shrunk within narrow bounds ; 

 while now the burning glow of the sun, and particularly the want of water, allow but a 

 sparse population. In contrast must not a jovial toper laugh indeed, who looks from 

 Johaunisberg out over the Rhine country, and drinks a health in Rudesheimer to the 

 noblest of the German rivers, if he recall the statement of Tacitus, that not even a 

 cherry, much less a grape, would ripen on the Rhine ! And if we ask the cause of this 

 mighty change, we are directed to the disappearance of the forests. With the careless 

 destruction of the growth of trees, man interferes to alter greatly the natural conditions 

 of the country. We can indeed now raise one of the finest vines upon the Rhine, where 

 two thousand years ago no cherry ripened ; but, on the other hand, those lands where 

 the dense population of the Jews was nourished by a fruitful culture are, in the present 

 day, half deserts. The cultivation of clover, requiring a moist atmosphere, has passed 

 from Greece to Italy, from thence to Southern Germany, and already is beginning to fly 

 from the continually drier summers there to be confined to the rnoister north. Rivers 

 which formerly scattered their blessings with equal fulness throughout the whole year, 

 now leave the dry and thirsty bed to split and gape in summer, while in spring they 

 suddenly pour out the masses of snow, accumulated in winter, over the dwelling-places of 

 affrighted men. If the continued clearing and destruction of forests is at first followed 

 by greater warmth, more southern climate, and more luxuriant thriving of the more 

 delicate plants, yet it draws close behind this desirable condition another which re- 

 strains the habitability of a region within as narrow, and perhaps even narrower, limits 

 than before. In Egypt no Pythagoras need now forbid his scholars to live upon the 

 beans ; long has that land been incapable of producing them. The wine of Mendes and 

 Mareotis, which inspired the guests of Cleopatra which was celebrated even by Horace 

 it grows no more. No assassin now finds the holy pine-grove of Poseidon, in which 

 to hide and lie in ambush for the singers hastening to the feast. The pine has long 



t Hydrology of South Africa ; or details of the former hydrographic condition of the 

 Cape of Good Hope, and of causes of its present aridity, with suggestions of appropriate 

 remedies for this aridity. In which the desiccation of South Africa, from pre-Adamic 

 times to the present day, is traced by indications supplied by geological formations, by 

 the physical geography or general contour of the country, and by arborescent produc- 

 tions in the interior, with results confirmatory of the opinion that the appropriate 

 remedies are irrigation, arboriculture, and an improved forest economy ; or the erection 

 of dams to prevent the escape of a portion of the rainfall to the sea, the abandonment 

 or restriction of the burning of the herbage and bush in connection with pastoral and 

 agricultural operations, the conservation and extension of existing forests, and the 

 adoption of measures similar to the reboisement and gazonnement carried out in France, 

 with a view to prevent the formation of torrents and the destruction of property occa- 

 sioned by them. London : Henry S. King & Co. 1875. 



