Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1881-10-08
Changes of the Earth,s Surface.

According to Lombardini, the Pc now trans
ports three times as much sediment as formerly.
the increase being chiefly due to the destruction
of the forests. and the consequent increased
denudation of the Alps. French engineers esti-
mate that the delta of the Rhone has advanced
at rate far greater than it did previous to the
cultivation of its valley. In the eastern United
States, wherever mountain slope has been
stripped, incipient ravines quickly form and
enlarge with such rapdity as to excite the atten-
ton of biologists. This is especially the case
with the sandy soils of Maryland Georgia and
Alabama previously covered with pine forests
The Black Earth of Russia. one of the chief
sources OF the agricultural wealth of the empire
is quickly cut up into huge ravines. and the
finest soil in Europe is being rapidly carried
away to increase the deltas of the Volga and the
Don, and to silt up the sea of Azov During the
great floods of 1866 and 1868 in France and Swift
zerland. the wooded soils alone escaped being
washed away The immunity of the provinces
OF brescla and Bergamo from damage by the
great Hoods of 1872 was chiefly due to forestal
improvements. During ten years the DEPART
ment OF the Lower Alps lost sixty-one thousand
acres of cultivated soil from the effects of for
rents and the clearing of the forests of the
Ardeche has resulted in the covering up of
seventy thousand acres of good land with barren
sand and gravel.
It is thought by many that vegetation ele-
Yates the surface as much as water depresses it.
This. however, can only be the case when natu-
raj vegetation is suffered to decay on the ground
in which it grew. In the case of cultivated
crops, which only partly return to the soil, this
elevation OF the surface cannot take place, and
Its compromising effect being lost denudation is
relatively greater from this cause alone.
Hence, 1t appears that one result of mans in
nuence, by laying bare large tracts of land for
cultivation, has been greatly to increase the ero-
sion OF the surface. In some instances however
the action Of man has been to check the natural
transport of sediment. This especially has been
done in the case of shifting sand-dunes and en-
croachments of the sea. Along that part of the
french coast which extends from the Gironde
TO the AdOur the sea throws up annually one
million two hundred and forty-five thousand
cubic metres of sand, which the wind heaps up
into hills and carries inland. overwhelming vii
lagos and converting streams into marshy pools.
The annual progress Of these sand hills was so
great that in many PARTS of Bretagne the tops of
chlmneys above sea Of sand alone marked the
site of buried villages. The amount of dune
land in western Europe has been estimated to
cover more than q million of acres; and still
larger deposits exist in parts of Africa, Asia and
America. The destruction caused by these shift
ing sands has, from an early date, attracted the
been to check their ravages by careful planting.
Thus has mans ingenuity been successfully op-
posed to the action Of the agencies which have
caused those endless wastes of drifting sands in
Poland, Peru and the United States; and to the
devastation which has resulted in the formation
Of the lzvsdes Of Gascony, S0l0gne and Brenne.
and the Campine sands Of Belgium Chamber
Journal