DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11637#0243
£22 TRAVELS IN UPPER
fertility of its soil invites every species of hus~
bandry. Those plants that cover the fields of our
northern climates, those that moderate with their
verdure the fervid heat of the interior parts of
Africa, those which are the boast of India, and
those which constitute the wealth of our American
colonies, almost all grow there, or Could find
every requisite for their vegetation.
This theatre of agriculture, too, is capable of
great enlargement. Fruitfulness would easily re-
sume its sway over the space it formerly occupied.
Canals badly kept in order, lakes dried up, the
waters of the Nile rto ion<rer diffusing themselves
over lands they once watered, and several other
causes, the fruits of carelessness and tyranny
equally barbarous, have suffered the sands to en-
croach on parts once covered with vegetable mould.
But these sandy strata, spread over a soil which
they have recently usurped, are but of little depths
and would yield to cultivation as soon as the wa-
ters could reach them. These new domains of
sterility are easily distinguishable. The sand oil
them has not the reddish and fiery appearance of
the plains eternally devoted to drought: it has
not the same depth ; it is not fluctuating, and the
foot that treads it feels the solid earth beneath.
These places, which plenty reclaims, are so abun-
dant, that wc may estimate their quantity, without
fear
fertility of its soil invites every species of hus~
bandry. Those plants that cover the fields of our
northern climates, those that moderate with their
verdure the fervid heat of the interior parts of
Africa, those which are the boast of India, and
those which constitute the wealth of our American
colonies, almost all grow there, or Could find
every requisite for their vegetation.
This theatre of agriculture, too, is capable of
great enlargement. Fruitfulness would easily re-
sume its sway over the space it formerly occupied.
Canals badly kept in order, lakes dried up, the
waters of the Nile rto ion<rer diffusing themselves
over lands they once watered, and several other
causes, the fruits of carelessness and tyranny
equally barbarous, have suffered the sands to en-
croach on parts once covered with vegetable mould.
But these sandy strata, spread over a soil which
they have recently usurped, are but of little depths
and would yield to cultivation as soon as the wa-
ters could reach them. These new domains of
sterility are easily distinguishable. The sand oil
them has not the reddish and fiery appearance of
the plains eternally devoted to drought: it has
not the same depth ; it is not fluctuating, and the
foot that treads it feels the solid earth beneath.
These places, which plenty reclaims, are so abun-
dant, that wc may estimate their quantity, without
fear