UNCLE SAM'S BIGGEST BANK ACCOUNT 29 



the low grade ores will be drawn upon. The deposits 

 of anthracite coal will be completely consumed during 

 the next fifty to seventy-five years while the bituminous 

 may last two centuries and the supplies of natural gas 

 and petroleum will doubtless be depleted long before 

 the end of the present century. The total estimated 

 supply of petroleum amounts to 23,000,000,000 barrels 

 and the amount annually consumed is 265,000,000 

 barrels. 



Animals. The situation regarding conservation as 

 applied to our animal life cannot be better expressed 

 than in the words of Dr. Hornaday when he says: 

 "Forty years ago the preservation of wild life was 

 regarded chiefly as a sentimental cause of practical in- 

 terest to the sportsmen only. Today it affects the 

 lumber pile, the market basket and the dinner pail." 

 While the North American continent with the variety 

 of forage it afforded originally possessed game in 

 marvelous variety and abundance great inroads have 

 been made upon the nation's supply. Investigators 

 claim that in view of the rapidity with which game 

 can be killed with the modern repeating rifle or shotgun 

 there is no species of game which can withstand the 

 attacks of man. The Indian legend told that the 

 buffaloes came forth in an endless procession from a 

 huge cavern and that there would always be buffalo 

 for the red men. Perhaps there would have been in 

 spite of the fact that they killed them in hundreds by 

 driving herds over high cliffs. With the coming of 

 the white man the slaughter for the market com- 

 menced. Splendid specimens were killed for their 

 skins or even for their tongues while the carcasses were 

 allowed to rot. In place of the 5,000,000 which is the 

 estimate placed upon the number in the United States 



