American Big Game In its Haunts 



oranges and lemons; further south the equally 

 valuable walnut and almond groves. 



The seven Forest Reserves of southern Cali- 

 fornia may be regarded as one almost continuous 

 tract embracing about 4,000,000 acres, lying on 

 either side of the crest of the Coast Range; they 

 are economically of enormous importance to Cali- 

 fornia, but not on account of their timber. In 

 many cases they are forest reserves without trees; 

 for example, the little Trabuco Canon Reserve, 

 which has but a handful of Coulter pines, and on 

 the northern slope a few scattered spruce. The 

 western slope of the foothills of the San Jacinto, 

 San Bernardino, San Gabriel, Zaca Lake and 

 Pine Mountain, and Santa Ynez reserves, are clad 

 only in chaparral, yet the preservation of these 

 hillsides from fire Is of vital Importance to the 

 people, since the mantle of vegetation protects, 

 to a certain degree, the sources of the streams 

 from which the supply of water is derived. In 

 this country they believe that water is life; thus 

 harking back to the teaching of the Father of 

 Philosophy, to Thales of Miletus, who lived six 

 hundred years before Christ: "The principle of 

 all things is water, all comes from water, and 

 to water all returns." Such trees as there are here 

 possess unusual interest; approaching the crest of 



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