Of 



PREFACE. 



THE object of this volume is to give, in popular form, an 

 account of some of the many ways in which refuse is made 

 and disposed of, first and chiefly by Nature, and secondly 

 by Man. 



The World's Lumber Room, comprising the three great 

 departments of Earth, Air, and Water, is in fact co-extensive 

 with the World itself, and, so far from being the sort of place 

 which the worthy Vicar's son seems to have pictured to 

 himself, is rather a workshop or laboratory, where nothing 

 is left to " perish," in his sense of the word, but the old 

 becomes new, and the vile and refuse, instead of being 

 "thrown by " in their vileness, are taken in hand and turned 

 to good account. 



Considering the popular character of the volume, it was 

 thought undesirable to cumber the pages with references, 

 but the following are the works which have been chiefly 

 consulted " Elements of Chemical and Physical Geology," 

 by Gustav Bischof; Darwin's "Journal of Researches," 

 "Coral Reefs," and "Vegetable Mould and Earthworms;" 

 J. D. Dana's "Coral Reefs and Islands;" Sir C. W. 

 Thomson's "Voyage of the Challenger-," H. N. Moseley's 



