FOREST CONSERVATORIES. 435 



A few escape immediate destruction, by finding shelter 

 in another wood. But, after being deprived of their 

 native habitats, they are exposed to the fox, the hawk, 

 and the gunner, and are soon destroyed. A gray squirrel 

 is now as rare in our woods as the loon in our ice-ponds. 

 Our wild animals are disappearing much more rapidly 

 than our forests. Something must soon be done to save 

 them, or in a few years none will be seen except in 

 remote and unfrequented regions. 



Let us now consider how such an establishment is to 

 be supported. All similar places have been very expen- 

 sive, for the plain reason that they are gardens, requir- 

 ing the constant labor and attention of many hired men. 

 This scheme involves no such expenses, for any descrip- 

 tion of costly labor would be fatal to its design. Here no 

 idols of art are to be set up to divert men from the study 

 of nature, and no costly appendages to be constructed for 

 public amusement. But if an inhabitant of another State 

 should visit Massachusetts to examine our native forest 

 and its indigenous animals and plants, by entering one of 

 these conservatories his curiosity would be gratified. He 

 would there behold a forest inhabited by the same species 

 of plants and animals that existed in that region three 

 hundred years ago. Every State in the Union, containing 

 a similar conservatory, would afford any stranger from 

 another State or from abroad the same gratification. 

 Under present circumstances, they must visit a great 

 many different places, very remote from each other, to see 

 in each what could be seen there in one natural assem- 

 blage. 



As a superintendent of the grounds some person of su- 

 perior knowledge should be appointed, who is sufficiently 

 interested in the study of nature to be contented with a 

 secluded life in this spot, and who would be satisfied 

 v.-ith a moderate remuneration. What a delightful retreat 



