Man and Nature: Or, Physical Geography as Modified by Human Action (Proceedings of the Harvard Celtic Colloquium)

504 Pages·1965·31.58 MB·English

by  George Marsh

THE JOHN HARVARD LIBRARY
Bernard Bailyn
Editor-in-Chief

The John Harvard Library
MAN AND NATURE
By
GEORGE PERKINS MARSH
Edited by David Lowenthal
THE BELKNAP PRESS OF
HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Originallypublishedin1864
CCopyright1965bythePresidentandFel/,ou;sofHarvardCollege
AUrightsreserved
.PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
LibraryofCongressCatalogCardNumber65-11591
ISBN0-674-54452-8
This bookhas beendigitallyreprinted. Thecontent
remains identicalto thatofpreviousprintings.
CONTENTS
Introduction by David Lowenthal ix
A Note on the Text xxvii
MAN AND NATURE
Preface 3
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY
Natural Advantages of the Te"itory of the Roman Empire • Physical Decay of
that Territory and of other parts of the Old World •Causes of the Decay • New
School of Geographers • Reaction of Man upon Nature •Observation of Nature •
Cosmical and Geological Influences • Geographical Influence of Man • Uncer
tainty of our Meteorological Knowledge • Mechanical Effects produced by Man
on the surface of the Earth •Importance and Possibility of Physical Re$foration •
Stability of Nature • Restoration of Disturbed Harmonks • Destructiveness of
Man • Human and Brute Action Compared • Physical Improvement • Arrest of
Physical Decay of New Countries • Forms and Formations most liable to Physical
Degradation • Physical Decay of New Countries • Corrupt Influence of Private
Corporations, Note. 7
CHAPTER II.
TRANSFER, MODIFICATION, AND EXTIRPATION OF
VEGETABLE AND OF ANIMAL SPECIES
~lodemGeography embraces Organic Life • Transfer of Vegetable Life • Foreign
Plants grown in the United States • American Plants grown in Europe • Modes
of Introduction of Foreign Plants • Vegetables, how affected by transfer to For
eign Soils • Extirpation of Vegetables • Origin of Domestic Plants • Organic Life
asa Geological and Geographical Agency • Number of Quadrupeds in the United
States •OriginandTransferofDomesticQuadrupeds·ExtirpationofQuadrupeds·
Numbers of Birds inthe United States • Birds as Sowers and Consumers of Seeds,
and as Destroyers of Insects • Diminution and Extirpation of Birds • Introduction
of Birds • Utility of Insects and Worms • Introduction of Insects • Destruction
of Insects • Reptiles • Destruction of Fish • Introduction and Breeding of Fish •
Extirpation of Aquatic Animals • Minute Organisms. 53
CHAPTER VI.
THE WOODS
The Habitable Earth originaUy Wooded • The Fore$f does not furnish Food for
Man • First Removal of the Woods • EDects of Fire on Fore$f Soil • Effects of
vi CONTENTS
the Destruction of the Forest • Electrical Influence of Trees •Chemical Influence
of the Forest.
Influence of the Forest, considered as Inorganic Matter, on Temperature: a,
Absorbing and Emitting Surface; b, Trees as Conductors of Heat; c, Trees in
Summer and in Winter; d, Dead.Products of Trees; e, Trees as a Shelter to
Grounds to the leeward of them; f, Trees as a Protection against Malaria • The
Forest, as Inorganic Matter, tends to mitigate extremes.
TreesasOrganisms: Specific Heat•Total InfluenceoftheForest onTemperature.
Influence of Forests on the Humidity of the Air and the Earth: a, as Inorganic
Matter; b, as Organic-Wood Mosses and Fungi-Flow of Sap-Absorption and
Exhalation of Moisture by Trees; Balance of Conflicting Influences • Influence of
the Forest on Temperature and Precipitation • In/luence of the Forest on the
Humidity of the Soil • Its Influence on the Flow of Springs • The Forest in
Winter •GeneralConsequencesofthe Destruction ofthe Forest •Condition of the
Forest, and its Literature in different Countries • The Influence of the Forest on
Inundations • DestructiveActionof Torrents • Transporting Power of Rivers • The
Po and its Deposits • Mountain Slides • Protection against the Fall of Rocks and
Avalanches by Trees • Principal Causes of the Destruction of the Forest • Ameri
can Forest Trees • Special Causes of the Destruction of European Woods • Royal
Forests and Game Laws • Small Forest Plants, and Vitality of Seeds • Utility of
the Forest • The Forests of Europe • Forests of the United States and Canada •
The Economy of the Forest • European and American Trees Compared • Sylvi
culture•Instabilityof·AmericanLife. 113
CHAPTER IV.
THE WATERS
Land artificially won from the Waters: a, Exclusion of the Sea by Diking; b,
Draining of Lakes and Marshes; c, Geographical Influence of such Operations •
Lowering of Lakes • Mountain Lakes • Climatic Effects of Draining Lakes and
Marshes.
Geographical and Climatic Effects of Aqueducts, Reservoirs, and Canals •
Surface and Underdraining, and their Climatic and Geographical Effects • Irriga
tion and its Climatic and Geographical Effects.
Inundations and Torrents: a, River Embankments; b, Floods of the Ardeche;
C, Crushing Force of Torrents; d, Inundations of 1856 in France; e, Remedies
against Inundations-Consequences if the Nile had been confined by Lateral
Dikes.
Deposits ofthe Tuscan Rivers • Improvements in the Val di Chiana • Improve
ments in the Tuscan Maremma • Obstruction of River Mouths • Subterranean
Waters • ArtesianWells •ArtificialSprings • Econ01nizing Precipitation. 281
CHAPTER V.
THE SANDS
OriginofSand •Sand now carried down to the Sea • The Sands of Egypt and the
adjacent Desert • The Suez Canal • The Sands of Egypt •Coast Dunes and Sand
Plains • Sand Banks • Dunes on Coast of America • Dunes of Western Europe •
Format-ion of Dunes • Character of Dune Sand • Interior Structure of Dunes •
FormofDunes•GeologicalImponance ofDunes•Inland Dunes •Age, Character,
and Permanence of Dunes • Use of Dunes as Barrier against the Sea • Encroach
ments of the Sea • The Liimfiord • Coasts of Schleswig-Holstein~Holland~ and
CONTENTS vii
France •DriftingofDune Sands•DunesofGascony • Dunes ofD'enmark • Dunes
ofPrussia •Controlof Dunes by Man • Artificial Formation of Dunes • Protection
of Dunes • Trees suitable for Dune Plantations • Extent of Dunes in Europe •
Dune Vineyards of Cap Breton • Removal of Dunes • Inland Sand Plains • The
Landes of Gascony • The Belgian Campine • Sands and Steppes of Eastern
Europe • Advantages of Reclaiming the Sands • Government Works of Improve
ment. 382
CHAPTER VI.
PROJECTED OR POSSIBLE GEOGRAPHICAL
CHANGES BY MAN
Cutting of Marine Isthmuses •The Suez Canal • Canal across Isthmus of Darien •
Canals to the Dead Sea •Maritime CanalsinGreece •Canal of Saros •Cape Cod
Canal • Diversion ofthe Nile •Changes in the Caspian • Improvements in North
American Hydrography • Diversion of the Rhine • Draining of the Zuiderzee •
Waters ofthe Karst •SubterraneanWaters ofGreece •Soil below Rock •Covering
Rockwith Earth •Wadies of Arabia Petrrea • Incidental Effects of Human Action
•Resistance to great Natural Forces • Effects of Mining • Espy~s Theories • River
Sediment • Nothing small in Nature. 437
Index 467

Man and Nature was supposed to be ~'a little volume showing
that whereas [others] think that the earth made man, mall in
fact made the earth."! And in tamperillg with nature, the author
warned a century ago in this prophetic book, man might destroy
himself. "Even now," he declared ominously, ~'we are breaking
up the Hoor and wainscoting and doors and window frames of
ourdwelling, for fuel towarmour bodies and seethe our pottage."
Through wanton destruction and profligate waste the earth was
"fast becoming an unfit home for its noblest inhabitant . . . An
other era of equal human crime and human improvidence . . .
would reduce it to such a condition of impoverished productive
ness, of shattered surface, of climatic excess, as to threaten the
depravation, barbarism, and perllaps even extinction of the
species."2 Man and Nature was written to reveal this menace, to
explain its causes, and to prescribe some antidotes.
Fewbookshave had more impact on the way men view and use
land. Appearing at the peak of American confidence in the inex
haustibility of resources, it was the first book to controvert the
myth of superabundance and to spell out the need for reform. It
showed how man differed from nature; it showed how nature
operatedwithin itself; itshowed exactly what happened to nature
when men cleared and farmed and built. Before Marsh wrote
this book, few saw;'and fewer worried about how man affecte(l
his environment. Today Marsh's illsights are virtually taken for
granted. Man and Nature was indeed "the fountainhead of the
conservation movement."3
It is worth reading after a hundred years not only because it
taught important lessons in its day, but also because it still
teaches them sowell. We have in the interim learned much about
human and natural behavior. But Marsh's expose of the damage
man has done to the earth is more graphic and comprehensive
than any later work on conservation. Historical insight and con-
1GeorgePerkins Marsh to Spencer Fullerton Baird, May 21, 1860, BairdCorre
spondence, Smithsonian Institution.
2ManandNature,pp. 52and43, below.
3Lewis Mumford, The Brown Decades: a Studyof the Arts in America, 1865
1895 (New York, 1931), p. 78.