304 THE HISTORY OF 



bush. The essential alteration of the climate which, 

 beginning with the twelfth century, has converted Greenland 

 into an almost uninhabited waste of ice, is well known. 

 Strongly as these processes, in the mass, seem to refuse 

 obedience to the will of Man, yet is this by no means the 

 case, and his continued activity, applied to one determinate 

 point, at length brings about results which surprise even 

 himself, because he does not at the moment mark the 

 gradually accumulating consequences of his labours nor, 

 led by necessary knowledge, foresee the final results. Almost 

 everywhere in the great characters in which Nature writes 

 her chronicles, in fossilized woods, layers of peat and the 

 like, or even in the little notes of men, for instance, in 

 the records of the Old Testament, occur proof, or at least 

 indications, that those countries which are now treeless 

 and arid deserts, part of Egypt, Syria, Persia and so forth, 

 were formerly thickly wooded, traversed by streams now 

 dried up or shrunk within narrow bounds ; while now the 

 burning glow of the sun and, particularly, the want of 

 water, allow but a sparing population. In contrast, must 

 not a jovial toper laugh indeed, who looks from Johannis- 

 berg out over the Rhine country, and drinks a health in 

 Riidesheimer to the noblest of the German rivers, if he 

 recall the statement of Tacitus, that not even a Cherry, 

 much more a Grape, would ripen on the Rhine And if 

 we ask the cause of this mighty change, we are directed 

 to the disappearance of the forests. With the careless 

 destruction of the growth of trees, Man interferes to alter 

 greatly the natural conditions of a country. We can 

 indeed now raise one of the finest wines upon the Rhine 

 where, two thousands years ago, no Cherry ripened, but on 

 the other hand, those lands where the dense population of 

 the Jews was nourished by a fruitful culture, are in the 



