40 THE GREAT EQUATORIAL FOREST BELT. 



The theory of Climatic Zones, though by no means 

 a new one, has in consequence been abandoned by 

 many geographers, as too uncertain to warrant its 

 general adoption. 



And yet, when all is said and done, we hold it to 

 be impossible to close one's eyes to the fact that a 

 certain class of country does, in effect, form a belt 

 round the earth's circumference, with more or less 

 continuity almost everywhere. Nevertheless the theory 

 of Climatic Zones has failed to obtain general ac- 

 ceptance, because, as we humbly conceive, its advocates 

 have tried to prove too much, and desired to parcel out 

 the earth's surface into too great a number of regions, 

 differing from each other in too slight a degree to 

 be generally accepted among men regarding things 

 from different points of view. 



Let us take a single instance of a belt such as we have 

 described: and we ask any thoughtful geographer, is 

 it not a fact that at the equator the earth's terrestrial 

 surface is circumscribed almost everywhere by an 

 evergreen forest of trees, which forms a dense and 

 almost impenetrable girdle around it at that point ? 

 It is true that through human agency this forest has 

 been destroyed at certain places near the Equator, 

 and that meadows and open country in consequence, 

 at present exist in these spots; but if so, the moment 

 that these lands are suffered to run wild, even for a 

 comparatively very short space of time, young trees 

 and bushes spring up with inconceivable rapidity, and 

 reassert the title of the wilderness. 



This is the reason why we have chosen the Wil- 

 derness as the type of country which we purpose 

 to write about: because there the natural landscape 



