PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ARID REGION. LT 
ages are larger. Utah gives about a fair average. In general it may be 
stated that the timber regions are fully adequate to the growth of all the 
forests which the industrial interests of the country will require if they 
can be protected from desolation by fire. No limitation to the use of the 
forests need be made. The amount which the citizens of the country will 
require will bear but a small proportion to the amount which the fires will 
destroy; and if the fires are prevented, the renewal by annual growth will 
more than replace that taken by man. The protection of the forests of the 
entire Arid Region of the United States is reduced to one single problem— 
Can these forests be saved from fire?) The writer has witnessed two fires 
in Colorado, each of which destroyed more timber than all that used by 
the citizens of that State from its settlement to the present day; and at 
least three in Utah, each of which has destroyed more timber than that 
taken by the people of the territory since its occupation. Similar fires 
have been witnessed by other members of the surveying corps. Every- 
where throughout the Rocky Mountain Region the explorer away from 
the beaten paths of civilization meets with great areas of dead forests ; 
pines with naked arms and charred trunks attesting to the former presence 
of this great destroyer. The younger forests are everywhere beset with 
fallen timber, attesting to the rigor of the flames, and in seasons of great 
drought the mountaineer sees the heavens filled with clouds of smoke. 
In the main these fires are set by Indians. Driven from the lowlands 
by advancing civilization, they resort to the higher regions until they are 
forced back by the deep snows of winter. Want, caused by the restricted 
area to which they resort for food; the desire for luxuries to which they 
were strangers in their primitive condition, and especially the desire for 
personal adornment, together with a supply of more effective instruments 
for hunting and trapping, have in late years, during the rapid settlement of 
the country since the discovery of gold and the building of railroads, 
greatly stimulated the pursuit of animals for their furs—the wealth and 
currency of the savage. On their hunting excursions they systematically 
set fire to forests for the purpose of driving the game. This is a fact well 
known to all mountaineers. Only the white hunters of the region properly 
understand why these fires are set, it being usually attributed to a wanton 
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