M 



THE 



AMERICAN 



JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND ARTS. 



[SECOND SERIES.] 



Art. XIII. — On the Destruction and partial Reproduction of 

 Forests in British North America ; by John William Daw- 

 son, Esq. of Pictou.* 



x The changes produced by the agency of civilized man, in the 

 condition of the earth's surface, and the numbers and distribution 

 °f its living inhabitants, though not of great importance when 

 compared with those which result from the unceasing operation 

 °* natural causes, are interesting to the naturalist, as they illus- 

 trate the vicissitudes which many parts of the earth's surface have 

 experienced in ancient times, the extent to which plants and ani- 

 m a!s can accommodate themselves to changes of circumstances, 

 and the natural compensations which have been provided for the 

 destruction or diminution of particular species. Inquiry into such 

 changes is also of importance as a means of dispelling the myste- 

 ry which frequently envelopes the succession of organized beings 



ystery 



pon 



^ration and the transmutation of species, tor explanations 01 phe- 

 nomena which if properly examined, would have been found to 

 result from some of the most ordinary causes of the maintenance 



^d distribution of animal and vegetable life. 



parts of it formin 



th eUnited States and British Provinces, such changes have oc- 

 curred with great rapidity, converting, in a few years, «"'."£ J'^ 

 fo *sts into countries having the aspect of regions long inhabited 



* From the Edinburgh Now Philosophical Journal, April, 1847, vol. *W* p. 259. 

 Sec » Series, Vol. IV, No. J l.-Sept-, Is \7. 21 



