BIOLOGY AND HUMAN WELFARE 



419 



the smaller ones are fast approaching the same fate. The Bison is 

 extinct in the United States except for the few hundreds preserved 

 in reservations; the Elk is restricted in numbers and range; the 

 Elephant Seal remains only in one small colony; the Bowhead 

 Whale and Right Whale are threatened with extermination; and 

 the Beaver has disappeared from most of its former haunts. The 

 demand for furs is estimated to be responsible for the destruction 



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Fig. 268. — Soil erosion due to removal of all the trees. 

 (From U. S. Forest Service.) 



of thirty million Mammals throughout the world each year, and this 

 number is nearly doubled if all the wild Mammals destroyed for 

 commercial purposes are included. While there is life there is hope, 

 but unless immediate steps are taken to reduce the slaughter, the 

 fur-bearing animals of the world at large are doomed. 



Birds are now faring somewhat better owing to the heroic efforts 

 started a generation ago by the Audubon Societies, so that a partial 

 restoration of our former bird population seems probable. Of what 

 use are the Birds? Even if usefulness were the only question in- 



