The Earth as Modified by Human Action

he dangers of imprudence and the necessity of caution in all operations which, on a large scale, interfere with the spontaneous arrangements of the organic or the inorganic world; to suggest the possi

f the other forms of animated life, which, like h

ore advanced periods, he protects and propagates certain esculent vegetables and certain fowls and quadrupeds, and, at the same time, wars upon rival organisms which prey upon these objects of his care or obstruct the increase of their

adapted to his occupation. The felling of the woods has been attended with momentous consequences to the drainage of the soil, to the external configuration of its surface, and probably, also, to local climate

against inundation by inland and by ocean floods; and the needs of commerce require the improvement of natural and the construction of arti

an industry with invasions as disastrous as the incursions of the ocean. On the other hand, on many coasts, sand-hills both protect the shores from erosion by the waves and currents, and shelter valuable grounds from blasting sea-w

s to yet grander achievements in the conquest of physical nature, and projects are meditated which q

istribution of the several topics to the chronological succession in which man must be supposed to have extended his sway over the different provinces of his material kingdom. I have, then, in the introductory chapter, stated, in a comprehensive way, the general effects and the prospective consequences of hum

rofessed physicists, but to the general intelligence of observing and thinking men; and that my purpose is rather to make practi

E P.

ber 1

THE PRESE

he minor subdivisions of the chapters; and I suppressed a few passages which teemed to me superfluous. In the present edition, which is based on the Italian translation, I have made many further corrections and changes of arrangement of the original matter; I have rewritten a considerable portion of the work, and have made, in the text and in no

he conservative and restorative, rather than with the destructive, effects of human industry, and he has drawn an attractive and encouraging picture of the ameliorating influences of the action of man, and of the compensations by which he, consciously or unconsciously, makes amends for the deterior

e P.

May 1,

WORKS CONSULTED IN THE P

t Haarlemmermeer, Oo

g. Haarlem

ormationen og Klittens

avn, 18

blicati per cura del Ministero d'Agricoltura, Ind

s from, in Becque

. Lipsiae, 185

Skoveno og om et or

nia, 185

euesten Entdeckungen

. Leipzig, various

ie Benutzung der Palmen

Indier. Hambur

r les Sciences d'Obsorvation.

Studien. St. Peters

ungen durch die Kustenl