DISAPPEARANCE OF FORESTS. 33 



struggle for a time with some measure of success, but 

 before which it has, let us hope only temporarily, suc- 

 cumbed. By that recuperative power, for ages all waste 

 by natural causes in primeval times was replaced, and not 

 only so, but the woods continued to extend themselves, and 

 make increase ; but with the introduction of this disturb- 

 ing element all has been changed. Where the restoration 

 was equivalent to the destruction, the equipoise has been 

 disturbed ; where the growth or production was in excess 

 of the waste, this has been reversed. There may have 

 been aforetime, as now, extensive destruction of forests by 

 natural causes, and doubtless there were, but in process of 

 time the loss appears to have been repaired and the forest 

 restored. I have intimated that even after the intro- 

 duction of this disturbing element the struggle was main- 

 tained for some time with success ; and from incidents in 

 this struggle we may form some idea of the greatness of 

 the recuperative power and the mode of its operation. 



It is frequently the case that where forests happen to 

 have been cleared away by accidental fire, forthwith a 

 fresh crop of trees, sometimes of the same kind as those 

 destroyed, but frequently, perhaps more frequently, of a 

 different kind springs up. A similar occurrence has 

 frequently been seen in connection with the destruction 

 of herbaceous plants. After the great fire of London, in 

 1666, there sprung up profusely on the streets flowers 

 which had not been seen there before the fire ; where a 

 piece of quicklime has fallen upon a moor the vegetation 

 on the spot has perished, but oftentimes there has appeared 

 in its stead a tuft of white clover ; when the foundation of 

 St. George's Church, in Capetown, was dug, there appeared 

 on the rubbish a luxuriant crop of a plant previously 

 unknown in the locality ; and in the London Medical Record 

 of 1871 we read : 



'The mines of Laurium, which gave rise recently to 

 such lively diplomatic discussion, are generally known to 

 be largely encumbered with scorise, proceeding from the 

 working of the ancient Greeks, but still containing enough 



D 



