PAPERS OF GENERAL INTEREST 39 



wliicli shall preserve sometliing of the original conditions 

 that existed before the advent of man, but in most cases 

 it is already too late to secure the necessary action when 

 the desirability of it becomes evident to most people. It 

 is, on the other hand, extremely easy in many cases to 

 secure reservations in unsettled country where there are 

 no local interests to be interfered with by such action. 



''The reservation of the Katmai National Monmnent 

 in Alaska, which comprises some seventeen hundred 

 square miles and is, next to the Yellowstone and Yose- 

 mite, the largest member of our National Park System, 

 involved no difficulty whatever for the simple reason 

 that it was carved out of an absolutely uninhabited coun- 

 try and there were no settlers on the ground whose in- 

 terest could be interfered with by the ^"ithdrawal of the 

 land from entry. 



"The same situation obtained at the time of the cre- 

 ation of the Yellowstone Park, but now. when it is de- 

 sired to extend the boundaries of the Yellowstone to in- 

 clude a considerable amount of country which it is uni- 

 versally admitted would be a highly desirable addition 

 to the park, it requires much agitation and heavy ex- 

 pense to secure the requisite action because of the de- 

 velopment of the country in the interun. 



"The principal objection that is raised against the 

 setting aside of areas in misettled country is that they 

 are in no danger of being disturbed by civilization and 

 that therefore there is no occasion for their being re- 

 served. In every case on record, however, history shows 

 that the extension of civilization so far exceeds expecta- 

 tions that within a few decades at the most, the wilder- 

 ness becomes peopled with a dense population and, where 

 action was not taken in the early stages, it has become 

 forever impossible to secure the parks of which everyone 

 then recognizes the need. 



"Any statesman-like view of the situation will convince 

 one that the people who live in this country fifty years 

 hence vrill be extremely grateful to this generation for 

 every area it may succeed in having reserved, however 



