CHAP. V. 



NAKED SANDS. 



There is another field of vast extent open to us, upon 

 which I am not without hopes, that a thorough acquaint- 

 ance with the habits of the grassy tribe may enable us to 

 make some impression, and that purely by the aid of the 

 same associate Nature, upon whose assistance I show in 

 the preceding chapters I have so much reliance, and who, 

 I expect, may be induced to commence her favourite ope- 

 ration of clothing our surface with a verdant sole of grass 

 by some slight melioration of the present surface, through 

 means not beyond very moderate powers. 



This field is of immeasurable extent, and far beyond the 

 reach of human exertions to make an impression upon it 

 that will bear any sensible proportion to its magnitude, or 

 even when viewed by itself be of very considerable extent ; 

 yet I have hopes that in the most favourable parts of it we 

 may rescue some small portions from the barrenness, and 

 desolation, which it at present exhibits. 



I mean the naked sands, often loose and blowing about 

 to the great injury of the contiguous grounds, too often 

 reduced by the agency of the^^nds to the same sterile state 

 with its dreary unproductive neighbour. Indeed, we have 

 good reason to believe, that such sandy deserts, already 

 occupying so much of the surface of our globe, have been 



