) 
Price.] 200 [Nov. 16 & Dec. 7, 
writing to Gregory the Great, from the Isis that empties into the south 
side of the Black Sea, thus describes his home in that part of Asia Minor : 
‘A high mountain clothed with thick woods, is watered to the north by 
fresh and ever flowing streams. At the foot lies an extended plain, ren- 
dered fruitful by the vapors with which it is moistened. The surrounding 
forest, crowded with trees of different kinds, encloses me as in a strong 
fortress.’’ Humbolt’s Cosmos, 393. 
Herodotus had thus nine hundred years before described the country 
further to the East. ‘‘ This part of Media, towards Saspires, is high and 
mountainous, and abounding with forests; the rest of the country is a 
spacious plain.”’ 
Of the north of Africa Herodotus says, ‘‘ All the more western parts of 
Libya, are much more woody, and more infested with wild beasts, than that 
where the Libyan Nomades reside ; for the abode of these latter advanc- 
ing eastward, is low and sandy. From hence westward, where those in- 
habit who till the ground, it is mountainous, full of wood, &e.” (Ch. 99; 
Sec. 191-) 
Libya, or the region called Tripoli, extending from Egypt to Tunis, in 
the early Christian centuries while under Roman rule, was productive and 
populus, and when overrun by the followers of Mahomet, towards the end 
of the eighth century, was reputed to contain six millions of souls, and 
eighty-five Christian Bishops (Dr. F. L. Oswald), and now probably not a 
million inhabit the same space. Elesée Recluse says that ‘‘the examina- 
tion of the soil and the remains which are contained in it, proves that at a 
recent geological epoch, the Sahara was much less sterile than it now is. 
The Tribes of the Algerian Sahara say, that at the time of the Romans the 
Ouad-Souf was a great river, but some one threw.aspeli upon it, and it 
disappeared. (The Earth, 95.) That spell was an evil one, the destruc- 
tion of the forests. 
Dr. Oswald says, ‘‘On the plateau of Sidi-Belbez, in the very centre of 
the Sahara, Champollion traced the course of former rivers and creeks by 
the depressions in the soil and the shape of the smooth-washed pebbles. 
He also found tree stumps almost petrified, and covered by a six foot 
stratum of burning sand.’’ He quotes Chimpollion as saying, ‘‘And so 
the astounding truth dawns upon us that this desert may once have been 
« region of groves and fountains, and the abode of happy millions. Is 
there any crime against Nature which draws down a more terrible curse 
than that of stripping Mother Earth of her sylvan covering? The hand of 
Man has produced this desert, and I verily believe every other desert on the 
surface of this earth. Earth was Eden once, and our misery is the punish- 
ment of our sins against the world of plants. The burning sun of the 
desert is the angel with the flaming sword who stands between us and 
Paradise.’? How certain, how sad, is this great truth! How awful then 
to think of the millions more who might have lived but for man’s ignor- 
ance, and folly and wickedness ; and to reflect upon the incalculable loss 
of happiness to those who did live, and have struggled with a deteriorated 
Nature for a miserable existence ! 
