On 7/3/07, P. J. Alling <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > The Indians, (Native Americans to the PC crowd), practiced slash and > burn agriculture. There wasn't nearly that much Virgin Forest.
It's unlikely that the Native American population in what is now North America would have been much more than 10 million (most estimates are lower) at the time of Columbus (not that he "discovered" North America, but his arrival is a convenient point to freeze time). I doubt that in an area the size of present-day Canada and US, such a population (not all of whom were practicing slash and burn agricultire) would have had a serious impact on the size of the forests... cheers, frank -- "Sharpness is a bourgeois concept." -Henri Cartier-Bresson -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
