SOME INDIRECT RESULTS 505 



done no more than glance at the most obvious links. And all 

 the changes I have, recounted took place in a remarkably 

 short period, the maximum of change being attained just 

 after 1 5 years, when the Gulls were disturbed and the evolu- 

 tion of the moorland-marsh was checked. In a few years the 

 people had rejoiced at a newly arisen haycrop, which, thanks 

 to the Gulls, had replaced useless heather; and in a few 

 more years, they lamented the growth of rushes and docks, 

 which, malisons upon the Gulls, had ruined their bountiful 

 hay. 



The interest of the story of the Gulls and the Moorland 

 lies partly in its suggestiveness. If the natural processes 

 set a-rolling by a tiny and temporary interference of man 

 can be so marked, how can imagination grasp the total 

 effects of man's influence, impressed upon the world of 

 Nature often with great power, and persisted in, not for a 

 few years, nor for a few centuries, but for thousands, nay, 

 even for tens of thousands of years? 



