Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1882-03-24
Changes OF the Earth's Surface,

According to Lombardina. the Pc
now transports three times as much
sediment as formerly. the increase be-
inc chiefly due 20 the destruction of the
forests. and the consequent increased
denudation of the Alps. French engi-
ncers estimate that the delta of the
Rhone has advanced at a rate far
greater than it did previous to the cul-
tivation of its valley. n the Eastern
United States, wherever a mountain
slope has been stripped, incipient ra-
vines quickly form and enlarge with
such rapidity Is to excite the attention
of biologists. This is especially the
case with the sandy soils OF Maryland,
Georgia. and Alabama, previously COW
cred 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 Nolga and the Don,
and to slit up the Sea of Azov. During
the great flood, of 1866 and 1868 in
France and Switzerland, the wooded
soils alone escaped being washed away.
The immunity of the Provinces of Bres-
cia and Bergamo from damage by the
great floods of 1872 was chiefly due to
forcstal improvements. During ten
years the department of the Lower
Alps lost 81 900 acres of cultivated soil
from the effects of torrents; and the
clearing of the forest of the Ardeche
has resulted in the covering up of 49,.
600 acres of good land with barren sand
and gravel.
1t is thought by many that vegeta-
ton elevates the surface as much as
water depresses it. This, however. can
only be the case when natural vegeta.
ton is suffered to decay on the ground
in which it grew. In the case of cult
waited crops, which only partly return
to the soil, this elevation of the surface
cannot take place; and, its compensa.
ting effect being lost, denudation is rela.
lively greater from this cause alone.
Hence it appears that one result of
mans influence by laying bare large
tracts of Land for cultivation has been
greatly to increase the erosion 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-!ve thousand cubic
metres of sand, which the wind heaps
up into hills and carries inland. over
whelming villages and converting
streams into marshy pools. The an
nual progress of the sand-hills was SO
great that in many parts of Brctagne
the tops of chimneys above n sea of
sand alone marked the site of buried
villages. The amount of duneland in
Western Europe alone has been esti-
mated to cover more than n million
acres; and still larger deposits exist in
parts of Africa. Asia, and America.
The destruction caused by these shift
less sands has, from an early date, at
tracted the attention of governments,
and the result has been TO check their
| ravages by careful planting. Thus has
mans ingenuity beer successfully OPP
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 devasta-
ton which has resulted in the forma-
ton of the landcs of Gascony, Sologne
| and Brenner. and the Campine sands OF
Belgium. CAam6erS' Journal.