EXTERMINATION OF ANIMAL LIFE. 333 



sent." * Dr. Philippson considers the steady destruction of forests 

 in the Peloponnesus as due in a large measure to the characteristics 

 of the Mediterranean climate. " In the Mediterranean region, 

 with its scorching rainless summers, its mostly violent rains in 

 other seasons, and its rare frosts, the formation of new soil is 

 slower and denudation more rapid than in Central and Northern 

 Europe. Hence, when forests are destroyed, bare rocky slopes 

 are exposed, unless maquis (dense evergreen scrub) succeed in 

 getting a hold before the last of the soil is washed away. When 

 the maquis again are removed, whether by accidental fires or of 

 the action of the charcoal-burners (their great enemy), their 

 place is taken by still more meagre forms — either the stunted 

 kermes oak, or the scattered prickly phrygana." t It is un- 

 necessary to refer to the effects of these changes on animal life. 



Knapp has recorded that in 1825, for many miles round his 

 residence, and with his ignorance as to further extension, scarcely 

 any female calves were born. " Dairies of forty or fifty cows 

 produced not more than five or six, these of inferior numbers in 

 the same proportion, and the price of female calves for rearing 

 was greatly augmented." I He appositely remarks, in the wild 

 state an event like this would have considerable influence upon 

 the usual product of some future herd. To grasp the full bearing 

 of this record we require much further information, especially as 

 to the nature of that season's grass, or the previous season's 

 roots. Geddes and Thomson state that a general conclusion, 

 " more or less clearly grasped by numerous investigators, is that 

 favourable nutritive conditions tend to produce females, and un- 

 favourable conditions males." § Thus bad crops, or a partial 



' := Eept. of paper read at Berlin Geogr. Soc. Jan. 4th, 1896, cf. ' Geograph. 

 Journ.' vol. vii. p. 423. 



f Petermann's "Mittheilungen," 1895, No. 12, cf. 'Geograph. Journ.' 

 1. c. p. 426. 



I ' Journ. of a Naturalist,' p. 139, note. 



§ ' Evolution of Sex,' p. 50. — Dr. Hecker has stated that, after the 

 cessation of the Black Plague, a greater fecundity in women was everywhere 

 remarkable — a grand phenomenon, which, from its occurrence after every 

 destructive pestilence, proves to conviction, if any occurrence can do so, the 

 prevalence of a higher power in the direction of general organic life. 

 Marriages were, almost without exception, prolific ; and double and treble 

 births were more frequent than at other times. — (' The Epidemics of the 

 Middle Ages,' translated by B. G. Babington, p. 31.) 



