THE BALANCE OF NATURE. 135 



by foliage, is necessary in order to keep up the 

 due amount of evaporation and subsequant rain- 

 fall, and the craggy peaks, left bare by goats of 

 their rising forests, cease to perform their original 

 function of rain-condensers for the surrounding 

 country. In this way, it is believed, many hilly 

 parts of Asia Minor, South Italy, India, and North 

 Africa have been denuded of their primitive for- 

 ests, and have had their climate rendered seriously 

 arid by the mere introduction of the common goat. 

 And yet what a simple and harmless thing it seems 

 to turn out a few dozen goats, wild, upon a 

 wooded hillside ! Who would ever imajrine 

 beforehand that by so doing he was bringing the 

 desolation of the sandy desert upon a once happy 

 and smiling landscape ? 



It is always so in nature, up and down. The 

 world around us is a vast interlacing whole, a 

 comi)lex system of innumerable parts, each of 

 which dovetails so neatly into the next tliat it is 

 impossible to alter one of the pieces in tlie least 

 degree without upsetting the harmony of the 

 whole surrounding and adjacent portions. For 

 example, how little connection there appears to 

 be, on a rough glance, between the number of 

 cats in a given district and the fertility of clover- 

 seed in the same i)lace ! And yet, as Mr. Dar- 

 Avin has pointed out, a very close and intimate re- 

 lation really exists between the two unlike facts. 



