PRODUCED BY MAN. 775 



Beginning at home, let us consider first of all what are the 

 most prominent changes which man has effected in the landscape, 



octavo volumes which appeared in the years 1864, 1873, and 1876, and contain much 

 of geograi)hical as vi^ell as of other interest. This illustrious scientist was for some 

 years from 1839 onwards concerned, together with v. Helmersen, in bringing out, at 

 the cost of the St. Petersburg Academy, a periodical, * Beitrage zur Kenntniss des 

 Kussischen Reiches.' In one of the volumes (xviii. 1856, pp. 111-115) "^ ^^^^ 

 periodical, a short paper by v. Baer appears, the purport of which is shown by its 

 title, ' Die Uralte Wuldlosigkeit der SUd-russischen Steppe,' * The Aboriginal want of 

 Wood on the South Russian Steppe.' This paper was written in supplementation of a 

 paper which had appeared in the fourth volume of the same periodical, 1841, pp. 

 163-198, with the same object of deprecating a useless and essentially nugatory 

 attempt to make these steppes timber-bearing. From it I will give an extract, partly 

 because it is so characteristic of the manner of the great biologist, and partly or 

 mainly because it shows how pure natural history can be brought to bear upon 

 political questions and may save a Government from engaging at great expense in 

 chimerical undertakings. V. Baer says. I.e. : — 'At that time (1841) I had forborne 

 to bring up a piece of evidence (in favour of the South Steppe never having been 

 wooded) which is much older than Herodotus ; and the present communication has 

 only just the purpose of putting out this evidence, for doing which I have had no 

 earlier opportunity. This piece of evidence is furnished by the squirrels. They are 

 found throughout the Russian empire, so far as trees are found to grow, even in the 

 Caucasus, but with the exception of the Crimea and Kamtchatka, although both these 

 peninsulas have the food which the squirrel wants, and the south coast of the Crimea 

 has it in great abundance. Now from these facts the following conclusion can clearly 

 be drawn, namely, that when these animals reached the southern borders of the 

 forests in South Russia, and the eastern borders of the forests in Siberia, the wide 

 expanse of the open South Russian steppes and also the bare levels northward in 

 Kamtchatka were already in existence. When was it, it may be asked, that the 

 squirrels came to these borders of the forests ? I don't know, but that they did come 

 to them before any historical period nobody will be inclined seriously to dispute.' 



Oscar Peschel, in his ' Neue Probleme der vergleichenden Erdkunde,' 1876, p. 188 1, 

 adds in explanation of this curious and convincing argument, 'A climbing animal 

 dependent for food upon seeds of the trees could not of course travel across the sunny 

 plains of grass ; and consequently the South Russian districts in question must have 

 been treeless ever since there were squirrels on the south boundary of the Russian 

 forests ; and there can scarcely be any doubt that they were there thousands of years 

 before the time of Herodotus.' Oscar Peschel gives no specific reference to v. Baer's 

 works : and v. Baer himself, or his printer, curiously, a wrong one in his * Auto- 

 biography,' p. 644. Nor have I found any reference to it in Professor Stieda's ' Karl 

 Ernst von Baer, eine biographische Skizze,' 1878. I have therefore another justifica- 

 tion for the giving of these details, and am glad if I have thus saved others trouble 

 which I had to take for myself, not unhelped, however, herein, by the staff of the 

 Bodleian Library. 



If Oscar Peschel has made one trifling omission, he has per contra made some of the 

 most important additions to geographical and anthropological knowledge, separately 

 and combined, which have been made since the time of Eitter. I need scarcely 

 specify his 



* Volkerkunde,' 1874. 



' Abhandlungen zur Erd- und Volkerkunde,' 2 vols., 1877-1878. 



