PAPERS PRESENTED AT GENERAL SESSIONS 49 



4,129,859; the whole state, 6,485,280. The scenery itself 

 is fitted exactly for our purpose, parks already made, 

 with wide stretches of water, deep forests, high bluffs, 

 lakes, lily ponds, the greatest of Indian mounds, ever 

 changing- scenes, and all delightful. 



The makings, the formulas, are lief ore us. The O'Xeil 

 bills now at Springfield, house numbers 181, 182, and 183, 

 cover the situation. The first named provides that the 

 state department of public works, now in charge of the 

 state highways and numerous activities of the kind, may 

 acquire tracts of lands of natural scenic beauty, embody- 

 ing cliffs, forest covered bluffs and forested or wood- 

 land areas, of which the chief values are best adapted for 

 natural park areas, reservations and preserves ; also to 

 maintain, improve and establish public parks and fish 

 and game preserves in their natural state of beauty. Bill 

 number 182 provides §100,000 to be divided between the 

 two coming years in the acquisition of land. Bill number 

 183 provides for a board of agricultural advisers of 

 fifteen persons. 



The friends of Our Native Landscape, an organization 

 of real workers, containing, some of the best authorities 

 of the state in these matters, — Jens Jensen, Stephen A. 

 Forbes, Dr. Cowles and others of their stature — have 

 made an extensive survey of the state, although they con- 

 tend there is much more to be done. This authority is 

 back of the O'Xeil bills. Their survey is mapped and 

 illustrated artistically and to the purpose. Leaving out 

 the Chicago-Joliet corner of the state, this survey sug- 

 gests twenty locations fairly located, the state over, from 

 the pineries of the northwest down the Mississippi, Sa- 

 vannah, Lima Lake, Piasa Bluff, Ft. Gage, Fountain 

 Bluff, and then through the Ozark Hills to the Ohio, Po- 

 mona Natural-Bridge, Giant City, Bald Knob, Wolf Lake, 

 Fern Cliff, Parker, Jackson Hollow, Dixon Springs, and 

 Cave Hill, one near Effingham and three on the Illinois, 

 Greater Starved Eock, Lake Senachwine and Havana, 

 and another in the Bockford pines and hills. 



Though the appropriation per the O'Xeil bills is small. 

 it is a beginning, and in view of the highway triumph 

 there is a reason for activity upon our part. Tbe Cook 



