VEGETATION EFFACING THE WORKS OF MAN. 41 



is seen as Nature intended it to be seen, before 

 it was diverted to other purposes foreign to her 

 design. 



It is a remarkable fact how Nature resents these 

 changes. Man may continue steadily working for 

 ages, without limitation, to maintain a piece of ground 

 in a certain condition to suit his own purpose. Yet 

 the moment he gives up the contest Nature at once 

 proceeds to reassert her indefeasible title to the land, 

 and one after the other his works begin to dwindle 

 away and decay, until finally they are entirely effaced. 

 Future generations of travellers making their way 

 across the country find the wilderness again in full 

 possession of the disputed territory; if it was a forest 

 country, the tree growth has again occupied the 

 scenes of man's labours and aspirations, seeds have 

 germinated, and their roots have fixed themselves upon 

 his mouldering walls and have overturned his most 

 massive architectural monuments, destroying them in 

 many cases so completely that it is sometimes im- 

 possible even to trace with any degree of certainty 

 their original limits or design. The beast of prey 

 and the night-bird make their lairs in what were the 

 habitations of mankind. 



So again, if it was a desert land and man has 

 reclaimed certain areas of ground from the sand, and 

 planted upon it his cities and his temples, feeding the 

 thirsty soil with water brought thither by construction 

 of canals or other means ; if in the vicissitudes of time 

 the human population become dispersed: the sand-drift 

 will infallibly seize its own again, and in the course 

 of years will bury every trace of human occupancy 

 under the onward movement of its sand-waves. Nu- 



