Man and Nature Part 30

These effects seem to result necessarily from the greater quant.i.ty of heat acc.u.mulated in the earth in summer since the ground has been cleared of wood and exposed to the rays of the sun, and to the greater depth of frost in the earth in winter by the exposure of its uncovered surface to the cold atmosphere."--_Collection of Papers by_ NOAH WEBSTER, p. 162.

[175] I have seen, in Northern New England, the surface of the open ground frozen to the depth of twenty-two inches, in the month of November, when in the forest earth no frost was discoverable; and later in the winter, I have known an exposed sand knoll to remain frozen six feet deep, after the ground in the woods was completely thawed.

[176]

----Det golde Strog i Afrika, Der Intet voxe kan, da ei det regner, Og, omvendt, ingen Regn kan falde, da Der Intet voxer.

PALUDAN-MuLLER, _Adam h.o.m.o_, ii, 408.

[177]

Und Sturme brausen um die Wette Vom Meer aufs Land, vom Land aufs Meer.

GOETHE, _Faust, Song of the Archangels_.

[178] _etudes sur l'economie Forestiere_, pp. 45, 46.

[179] I am not aware of any evidence to show that Malta had any woods of importance at any time since the cultivation of cotton was introduced there; and if it is true, as has been often a.s.serted, that its present soil was imported from Sicily, it can certainly have possessed no forests since a very remote period. In Sandys's time, 1611, there were no woods in the island, and it produced little cotton. He describes it as "a country altogether champion, being no other than a rocke couered ouer with earth, but two feete deepe where the deepest; hauing but few trees but such as beare fruite. * * * So that their wood they haue from Sicilia." They have "an indifferent quant.i.ty of cotton wooll, but that the best of all other."--SANDYS, _Travels_, p. 228.

[180] SCHACHT, _Les Arbres_, p. 412.

[181] _What may be learned from a Tree_, p. 117.

[182] _Der Wald_, p. 13.

[183] _Om Skovene og deres Forhold til National[oe]conomien_, pp.

131-133.

[184] _Om Skovene og om et ordnet s...o...b..ug i Norge_, p. 106.

[185] _etudes et Lectures_, iv. p. 114.

[186] The supposed increase in the frequency and quant.i.ty of rain in Lower Egypt is by no means established. I have heard it disputed on the spot by intelligent Franks, whose residence in that country began before the plantations of Mehemet Aali and Ibrahim Pacha, and I have been a.s.sured by them that meteorological observations, made at Alexandria about the beginning of this century, show an annual fall of rain as great as is usual at this day. The mere fact, that it did not rain during the French occupation, is not conclusive. Having experienced a gentle shower of nearly twenty-four hours' duration in Upper Egypt, I inquired of the local governor in relation to the frequency of this phenomenon, and was told by him that not a drop of rain had fallen at that point for more than two years previous.

The belief in the increase of rain in Egypt rests almost entirely on the observations of Marshal Marmont, and the evidence collected by him in 1836. His conclusions have been disputed, if not confuted, by Jomard and others, and are probably erroneous. See, FOISSAC, _Meteorologie_, German translation, pp. 634-639.

It certainly sometimes rains briskly at Cairo, but evaporation is exceedingly rapid in Egypt--as any one, who ever saw a Fellah woman wash a napkin in the Nile, and dry it by shaking it a few moments in the air, can testify; and a heap of grain, wet a few inches below the surface, would probably dry again without injury. At any rate, the Egyptian Government often has vast quant.i.ties of wheat stored at Boulak, in uncovered yards through the winter, though it must be admitted that the slovenliness and want of foresight in Oriental life, public and private, are such that we cannot infer the safety of any practice followed in the East, merely from its long continuance.

Grain, however, may be long kept in the open air in climates much less dry than that of Egypt, without injury, except to the superficial layers; for moisture does not penetrate to a great depth in a heap of grain once well dried, and kept well aired. When Louis IX was making his preparations for his campaign in the East, he had large quant.i.ties of wine and grain purchased in the Island of Cyprus, and stored up, for two years, to await his arrival. "When we were come to Cyprus," says Joinville, _Histoire de Saint Louis_, ---- 72, 73, "we found there greate foison of the Kynge's purveyance. * * The wheate and the barley they had piled up in greate heapes in the feeldes, and to looke vpon, they were like vnto mountaynes; for the raine, the whyche hadde beaten vpon the wheate now a longe whyle, had made it to sproute on the toppe, so that it seemed as greene gra.s.se. And whanne they were mynded to carrie it to Egypte, they brake that sod of greene herbe, and dyd finde under the same the wheate and the barley, as freshe as yf menne hadde but nowe thrashed it."

[187] _etude sur les Eaux au point de vue des Inondations_, p. 91.

[188] _economie Rurale_, ii, chap. xx, -- 4, pp. 756-759. See also p.

733.

[189] Jacini, speaking of the great Italian lakes, says: "A large proportion of the water of the lakes, instead of discharging itself by the Ticino, the Adda, the Oglio, the Mincio, filters through the silicious strata which underlie the hills, and follows subterranean channels to the plain, where it collects in the _fontanili_, and being thence conducted into the ca.n.a.ls of irrigation, becomes a source of great fertility."--_La Proprieta Fondiaria, etc._, p. 144.

[190] _Meteorologie_, German translation by EMSMANN, p. 605.

[191] _Handbuch der Physischen Geographie_, p. 658.

[192] _Annales des Ponts et Chaussees_, 1854, 1st semestre, pp. 21 _et seqq._ See the comments of VALLeS on these observations, in his _etudes sur les Inondations_, pp. 441 _et seqq._

[193] The pa.s.sage in Pliny is as follows: "Nasc.u.n.tur fontes, decisis plerumque silvis, quos arborum alimenta consumebant, sicut in Haemo, obsidente Gallos Ca.s.sandro, quum valli gratia cecidissent. Plerumque vero d.a.m.nosi torrentes corrivantur, detracta collibus silva continere nimbos ac digerere consueta."--_Nat. Hist._, x.x.xi, 30.

Seneca cites this case, and another similar one said to have been observed at Magnesia, from a pa.s.sage in Theophrastus, not to be found in the extant works of that author; but he adds that the stories are incredible, because shaded grounds abound most in water: fere aquosissima sunt quaec.u.mque umbrosissima.--_Quaest. Nat._, iii, 11. _See Appendix_, No. 26.

[194] "Why go so far for the proof of a phenomenon that is repeated every day under our own eyes, and of which every Parisian may convince himself, without venturing beyond the Bois de Boulogne or the forest of Meudon? Let him, after a few rainy days, pa.s.s along the Chevreuse road, which is bordered on the right by the wood, on the left by cultivated fields. The fall of water and the continuance of the rain have been the same on both sides; but the ditch on the side of the forest will remain filled with water proceeding from the infiltration through the wooded soil, long after the other, contiguous to the open ground, has performed its office of drainage and become dry. The ditch on the left will have discharged in a few hours a quant.i.ty of water, which the ditch on the right requires several days to receive and carry down to the valley."--CLAVe, _etudes, etc._, pp. 53, 54.

[195] VALLeS, _etudes sur les Inondations_, p. 472.

[196] _economie Rurale_, p. 730.

[197] _Ueber die Entwaldung der Gebirge_, pp. 20 _et seqq._

[198] _Physische Geographie_, p. 32.

[199] _The Trees of America_, pp. 50, 51.

[200] THOMPSON's _Vermont_, appendix, p. 8.

[201] _Trees of America_, p. 48.

[202] Dumont, following Dansse, gives an interesting extract from the Misopogon of the Emperor Julian, showing that, in the fourth century, the Seine--the level of which now varies to the extent of thirty feet between extreme high and extreme low water mark--was almost wholly exempt from inundations, and flowed with a uniform current through the whole year. "Ego olim eram in hibernis apud caram Lutetiam, [sic] enim Galli Parisiorum oppidum appellant, quae insula est non magna, in fluvio sita, qui eam omni ex parte eingit. Pontes sublicii utrinque ad eam ferunt, rarque fluvius minuitur ae crescit; sed qualis aestate, talis esse solet hyeme."--_Des Travaux Publics dans leur Rapports avec l'Agriculture_, p. 361, note.

As Julian was six years in Gaul, and his princ.i.p.al residence was at Paris, his testimony as to the habitual condition of the Seine, at a period when the provinces where its sources originate were well wooded, is very valuable.

[203] Almost every narrative of travel in those countries which were the earliest seats of civilization, contains evidence of the truth of these general statements, and this evidence is presented with more or less detail in most of the special works on the forest which I have occasion to cite. I may refer particularly to HOHENSTEIN, _Der Wald_, 1860, as full of important facts on this subject. See also CAIMI, _Cenni sulla Importanza dei Boschi_, for some statistics not readily found elsewhere, on this and other topics connected with the forest.

[204] Stanley, citing SELDEN, _De Jure Naturali_, book vi, and FABRICIUS, _Cod. Pseudap._ V. T., i, 874, mentions a remarkable Jewish tradition of uncertain but unquestionably ancient date, which is among the oldest evidences of public respect for the woods, and of enlightened views of their importance and proper treatment:

"To Joshua a fixed Jewish tradition ascribed ten decrees, laying down precise rules, which were inst.i.tuted to protect the property of each tribe and of each householder from lawless depredation. Cattle, of a smaller kind, were to be allowed to graze in thick woods, not in thin woods; in woods, no kind of cattle without the owner's consent. Sticks and branches might be gathered by any Hebrew, but not cut. * * * Woods might be pruned, provided they were not olives or fruit trees, and that there was sufficient shade in the place."--_Lectures on the History of the Jewish Church_, part i, p. 271.

[205] There seems to have been a tendency to excessive clearing in Central and Western, earlier than in Southeastern France. Wise and good Bernard Palissy--one of those persecuted Protestants of the sixteenth century, whose heroism, virtue, refinement, and taste s.h.i.+ne out in such splendid contrast to the brutality, corruption, grossness, and barbarism of their oppressors--in the _Recepte Veritable_, first printed in 1563, thus complains: "When I consider the value of the least clump of trees, or even of thorns, I much marvel at the great ignorance of men, who, as it seemeth, do nowadays study only to break down, fell, and waste the fair forests which their forefathers did guard so choicely. I would think no evil of them for cutting down the woods, did they but replant again some part of them; but they care nought for the time to come, neither reck they of the great damage they do to their children which shall come after them."--_[OE]uvres Completes de Bernard Palissy_, 1844, p. 88.

[206] The great naval and commercial marines of Venice and of Genoa must have occasioned an immense consumption of lumber in the Middle Ages, and the centuries immediately succeeding those commonly embraced in that designation. The marine construction of that period employed larger timbers than the modern naval architecture of most commercial countries, but apparently without a proportional increase of strength. The old modes of s.h.i.+p building have been, to a considerable extent, handed down to the present day in the Mediterranean, and an American or an Englishman looks with astonishment at the huge beams and thick planks so often employed in the construction of very small vessels navigating that sea. According to Hummel, the desolation of the Karst, the high plateau lying north of Trieste, now one of the most parched and barren districts in Europe, is owing to the felling of its woods to build the navies of Venice. "Where the miserable peasant of the Karst now sees nothing but bare rock swept and scoured by the raging Bora, the fury of this wind was once subdued by mighty firs, which Venice recklessly cut down to build her fleets."--_Physische Geographie_, p. 32. See _Appendix_, No.

27.

[207] _Le Alpi che cingono l'Italia_, i, p. 367.

[208] See the periodical _Politecnico_, published at Milan, for the month of May, 1862, p. 234.

[209] _Annali di Agricoltura, Industria e Commercio_, vol. i, p. 77.

[210] HOLINSHED, reprint of 1807, i, pp. 357, 358. It is evident from this pa.s.sage, and from another on page 397 of the same volume, that, though sea coal was largely exported to the Continent, it had not yet come into general use in England. It is a question of much interest, when coal was first employed in England for fuel. I can find no evidence that it was used as a combustible until more than a century after the Norman conquest. It has been said that it was known to the Anglo-Saxon population, but I am acquainted with no pa.s.sage in the literature of that people which proves this. The dictionaries explain the Anglo-Saxon word _graefa_ by sea coal. I have met with this word in no Anglo-Saxon work, except in the _Chronicle_, A. D. 852, from a ma.n.u.script certainly not older than the twelfth century, and in that pa.s.sage it may as probably mean peat as coal, and quite as probably something else as either. Coal is not mentioned in King Alfred's Bede, in Glanville, or in Robert of Gloucester, though all these writers speak of jet as found in England, and are full in their enumeration of the mineral products of the island.

England was anciently remarkable for its forests, but Caesar says it wanted the _f.a.gus_ and the _abies_. There can be no doubt that _f.a.gus_ means the beech, which, as the remains in the Danish peat mosses show, is a tree of late introduction into Denmark, where it succeeded the fir, a tree not now native to that country. The succession of forest crops seems to have been the same in England; for Harrison, p. 359, speaks of the "great store of firre" found lying "at their whole lengths" in the "fens and marises" of Lancas.h.i.+re and other counties, where not even bushes grew in his time. We cannot be sure what species of evergreen Caesar intended by _abies_. The popular designations of spike-leaved trees are always more vague and uncertain in their application than those of broad-leaved trees. _Pinus_, _pine_, has been very loosely employed even in botanical nomenclature, and _Kiefer_, _Fichte_, and _Tanne_ are often confounded in German.--ROSSMa.s.sLER, _Der Wald_, pp.

256, 289, 324. If it were certain that the _abies_ of Caesar was the fir formerly and still found in peat mosses, and that he was right in denying the existence of the beech in England in his time, the observation would be very important, because it would fix a date at which the fir had become extinct, and the beech had not yet appeared in the island.

The English oak, though strong and durable, was not considered generally suitable for finer work in the sixteenth century. There were, however, exceptions. "Of all in Ess.e.x," observes HARRISON, _Holinshed_, i, p.

357, "that growing in Bardfield parke is the finest for ioiners craft: for oftentimes haue I seene of their workes made of that oke so fine and faire, as most of the wainescot that is brought hither out of Danske; for our wainescot is not made in England. Yet diuerse haue a.s.saied to deale without [with our] okes to that end, but not with so good successe as they haue hoped, bicause the ab or iuice will not so soone be remoued and cleane drawne out, which some attribute to want of time in the salt water."