302 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF NEW JERSEY. 
of Fontainebleau (40,000 acres), for instance, is on a bed of dry 
sand. Remove this forest, and 98 per cent. of it would become 
a desert of drifting sand. It should always be borne in mind 
that sandy soils in regions in which there are sufficient warmth 
and humidity, if left to nature and freed from the pernicious. 
interference of the human species, fires and browsing animals, 
will in the course of ages become forest-clad and fertile. By 
forest-clad I do not mean a meagre growth of trees and bushes, 
but a rich, dense forest, with a soil which, under the influence 
of leaf-mold, will ever improve in quality, both physically and 
chemically. By the application of skill and knowledge this 
process may be, of course, hastened. ‘There are French foresters 
who have said that were it not for the camels and Arabs of the 
Sahara the oases of vegetation would have gradually spread and 
covered a large proportion of that barren waste. On the other 
hand a magnificent forest on fertile, sandy soil can be quickly 
converted into a sterile desert by the reckless removal of fer- 
tility from the surface. Those lands in Southern New Jersey 
which are being subjected to the same or similar processes 
through which the Campine of Belgium has passed belong to 
the Beacon Hill Formation, which is mapped and described in 
the Annual Report of the State Geologist for 1898. 
In referring to this region, Mr. Knapp says: “In the vicinity 
of Hammonton many clearings have been made on this forma- 
tion and have been found to be profitable for the cultivation of 
berries. It is possible that considerable tracts elsewhere might 
be used in the same way, but at present a very small proportion 
only of this formation is in cultivation. The formation as a 
whole seems to invite forest culture rather than the ordinary 
form of agriculture.” He also assures us that although the soil 
is coarse, loose and white, its surface appearance is worse than 
its real character. 
The Dunes and Landes of Gascony. 
In this chapter I shall refer mainly to the Dunes and Landes 
of Gascony, one of the stereotyped examples of the complete 
reclamation of an almost uninhabitable and unproductive waste- 
land. The two principal works I have consulted on the subject 
