A Sportsman 3 



streams, which have now dwindled down to insignifi- 

 cant volume. 



At the time of founding Madrid in the early part of 

 the sixteenth century, which was centrally located in 

 Spain, it was surrounded by forests of magnitude, 

 all of which have disappeared from view. They 

 were rain breeders and moisture holders, and with 

 their loss the country became deprived of water 

 supply and dependent upon irrigation. 



I was strongly reminded while there, and viewing 

 the desolate appearance of the environs of the city, 

 of those about the comparatively treeless region 

 of the city of Santa Fe in New Mexico, where one 

 looks out upon a desert country, but scantily re- 

 lieved by habitation. 



I have noted in New Mexico the effect of forest 

 denudation, as it is well known that at the time 

 of the Francisco Vasquez de Coronado Spanish invasion 

 in the early part of the sixteenth century, diverted 

 from the Hernando Cortes, that considerable parts 

 of New Mexico were forest -grown, now barren, which 

 supported a much larger native population than found 

 at the time of the acquisition of that territory by 

 the United States in 1848. 



Frequent forest fires were the occasion which, even 

 before the Coronado advance in search of the golden 

 cities of Mexican tradition, had made prominent 

 ravages, and diminished a population which had so 

 far as indications show, been the most dense at one 

 time in Northern New Mexico and Southern Colorado 

 that existed upon the North American continent. 



I have witnessed on the Estancia plains, and at 

 Algodones and other localities in New Mexico and 



