XIV PREFACE. 



If therefore we desire to describe Nature in its 

 original beauty and splendour, it has always seemed 

 to us, that it is best seen in the wild, or wilderness 

 country. In regions where the ultra- civilization 

 of modern life prevails, we do not see it thus: 

 what we see is an artificial landscape arranged 

 after the tastes and fancies of its human inhabitant. 

 Takmg our own country for instance, as an example 

 of the changes that have occurred, we find its 

 ancient records show that Great Britain in its 

 natural state, w?s mainly a land of forests, swamps, 

 and moorland. How different is its present condition ! 



The reader will please to remembe A , that the 

 question as to which is better than the other, 

 does not arise: our design is to describe Nature 

 " unadorned," and as she is, or rather was. At 

 the same time we are fully conscious of the improve- 

 ment of many natural products through cultivation. 

 Who, for instance, would recognize the splendid 

 Hybrid perpetual rose of our gardens, as the wild 

 rose of our hedgerows? Who would see in the 

 shoi c-horned cattle, or the Berkshire pig, the same 

 animals as their wild ancestors? 



All that we say is, that these are not the same 

 as the original productions of Nature. These 

 things exhibit the power of human agency to 

 modify the works of Nature. But Nature for her 

 own wise reasons will have none of them ; and 

 were human culture to be withdrawn, in a compara- 

 tively sliort time both the flower and the cattle 

 would have followed their owners, to that land 

 where all things are forgotten. 



Savage life is however repugnant to many persons, 



