The natural character of the various fields where human industry has effected revolutions so important, and where the multiplying population and the impoverished resources of the globe demand new triumphs of mind over matter, suggests a corresponding division of the general subject, and I have conformed the distribution 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 human action upon the earth's surface and the life which peoples it. This chapter is followed by four others in which I have traced the history of man's industry as exerted upon Animal and Vegetable Life, upon the Woods, upon the Waters, and upon the Sands; and to these I have added a concluding chapter upon Probable and Possible Geographical Revolutions yet to be effected by the art of man.
I have only to add what, indeed, sufficiently appears upon every page of the volume, that I address myself not to professed physicists, but to the general intelligence of educated, observing, and thinking men; and that my purpose is rather to make practical suggestions than to indulge in theoretical speculations properly suited to a different class from that to which those for whom I write belong.
GEORGE P. MARSH.
December 1, 1863.
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL LIST
OF WORKS CONSULTED IN THE PREPARATION OF THIS VOLUME.
Amersfoordt, J. P. Het Haarlemmermeer, Oorsprong, Geschiedenis, Droogmaking. Haarlem, 1857. 8vo.
Andresen, C. C. Om Klitformationen og Klittens Behandling og Bestyrelse. Kjöbenhavn, 1861. 8vo.