"50 HISTORY OF 



though constantly teased more to furnish the 

 luxuries of man than his necessities, yet, even to 

 the last, she continues her kind indulgence, and 

 when life is over, she piously covers his remains 

 in her bosom. 



This external and fruitful layer which covers 

 the earth, is, as was said, in a state of continual 

 change. Vegetables, which are naturally fixed 

 and rooted to the same place, receive their ad- 

 ventitious nourishment from the surrounding 

 earth and water : animals, which change from 

 place to place, are supported by these, or by 

 each other. Both, however, having for a time 

 enjoyed a life adapted to their nature, give back 

 to the earth those spoils which they had borrow- 

 ed for a very short space, yet still to be quicken- 

 ed again into fresh existence. But the deposits 

 they make are of very dissimilar kinds, and the 

 earth is very differently enriched by their conti- 

 nuance. Those countries that have for a long 

 time supported men and other animals, having 

 been observed to become every day more bar- 

 ren ; while, on the contrary, those desolate 

 places in which vegetables only are abundantly 

 produced, are known to be possessed of amazing 

 fertility. * " In regions which are uninhabited," 

 says M. Buffon, " where the forests are not cut 

 down, and where animals do not feed upon the 

 plants, the bed of vegetable earth is constantly 

 increasing. In all woods, and even in those which 

 are often cut, there is a layer of earth of six or 



* Buffon, vol. i. p. 353. 



