Conservation of Natural Resources in California. 77 



covered with fragments of noble trees 2 and with, young saplings crushed 

 to pieces by fallen timber. 



The next photographs show deforested hillsides and farm lands, dam- 

 aged by rainstorms which gnawed deep gullies into the naked ground 

 and carried away all fruitful soil". And here we have villages and cities 

 suffering by the flood of rivers. The water reaches into the first and 

 second stories. Mills and houses have been swept away and landed on 

 distant places. 



After that we look into a bird 's nest, in which we see a heap of young 

 birds, dead from starvation. Another of these ghastly photographs 

 affords a glance over rocky shores, strewn with the putrid bodies of thou- 

 sands and thousands of seal pups, who perished while waiting in vain for 

 the return of their slain mothers. 



And then we see horrible views showing long rows of human corpses, 

 distorted by explosions, burned by fire, crushed by fallen rocks, or 

 maimed by railway engines or street cars. 



There are dozens and dozens of such repulsive photographs. If 

 thrown as lantern slides upon a screen and explained by a lecturer, this 

 collection of views, maps, and figures would cause a cry of terror among 

 the panic-stricken audience, and many, shocked to the bottom of their 

 hearts, would leave, never to forget that horrible exhibition. 



You ask where these photographs have been taken and what the whole 

 collection means. As an American citizen, I feel ashamed to say that all 

 these views, without exception, were made from actual scenes in the 

 United States, and that, together with the maps and statistic tables, they 

 are incontrovertible and convicting evidences of grave sins of which our 

 nation is guilty. Some of the material has been used in preparing my 

 little book, "Our Wasteful Nation," which is not an outcome of yellow 

 journalism, dealing in sensations, but the honest work of a man who 

 loves this country fervently as any native-born American, and who is 

 inspired by the wish to help it along, that 'it some day may gain the 

 proud title, the best among all lands. 



Perhaps native-born American writers are so accustomed to the 

 extravagance of American life, that they fail to see the amazing amount 

 of our prodigality, which to the stranger becomes evident at once. 



THE WATERFOWL. 



Another of California's resources that is being rapidly gathered to its 

 fathers is the wild game, particularly the waterfowl. A few years ago 

 they seemed as "inexhaustible" as the leaves on the trees. But now 

 100,000 licenses to hunt are taken out in a year. If each of these guns 

 should bring down the limit for cnly one day, it would mount up to a 



