Note 128 — Chapter III
Reading edition
"Long before the appearance of man, * * * they [the forests] had robbed the atmosphere of the enormous quantity of carbonic acid it contained, and thereby transformed it into respirable air. Trees heaped upon trees had already filled up the ponds and marshes, and buried with them in the bowels of the earth—to restore it to us after thousands of ages in the form of bituminous coal and of anthracite—the carbon which was destined to become, by this wonderful condensation, a precious store of future wealth."—Clavé, Études sur l'Économie Forestière, p. 13.
This opinion of the modification of the atmosphere by vegetation is contested.