Relying upon what I know to have taken place with regard to birds, I did not hesitate to attack these discouraging prophecies. Military and civil mortality was in 1845 doubtless much more considerable in Algeria than in France, and the number of deaths must again have exceeded that of births. But emigration was at that time abundant and continual. Now, if the influx of new arrivals filled the voids caused by the change in conditions of existence, it at the same time augmented the mortality by continually bringing forward recruits to this war against conditions of life. The rate of deaths amongst children was almost double that reported by French statistics; but the proportion of deaths was still much less than that among the first geese at Bogota. Finally, far from having been weakened, the fertility of the women had increased; the sources of life were therefore much less affected in this case than upon the high plateaus of America. From all these considerations, I felt justified in concluding that the acclimatisation of the French in Algeria was certain of success, and would not require twenty generations. My opinion has been corroborated by events much sooner than I expected. The census of 1870 showed in the European population of Algeria an increase of 25,000, due almost entirely to the superiority of the number of births over that of deaths. The action of the first generation born in the country began to make itself felt, and from that time the result has been still more striking. In two or three more generations the French Creole will live in Algeria quite as well as his ancestors have lived in France. There are, however, distinctions which must be drawn with regard to the facility of acclimatisation in Algeria, between the different European races, and even between the inhabitants of the north and south of France. The statistics offered by MM. Boudin, Martin, and Foley show clearly that the Spaniards and Maltese stand the Algerian climate infinitely better than the English, Belgians, or Germans. Now, the inhabitants of the north of France strongly resemble the latter nations in race and habits. In both these respects the inhabitants of southern France are connected, on the contrary, with the inhabitants of Malta and Spain. We might, therefore, without much fear of error, prophesy that the latter had, either for themselves or their descendants, a much greater chance of surviving than the French of Alsatian and Flemish origin. Experience has again fully confirmed these deductions of theory.