102 OUR USE OF THE LAND 



the point of precipitation. Other routes would be from precipi- 

 tation to run-off to surface water to evaporation, or from 

 infiltration to transpiration and thus back to precipitation. 



For millions of years water has beeh going on this endless 

 journey undisturbed. In the process it has nourished plants to 

 feed the land animals. It has filled the streams and ponds for 

 the fish and water fowl. 



Unfortunately, the activities of man have not always fitted 

 in with this plan. In the process of building a civilisation, man 

 has built a barrier across the hydrologic cycle. This barrier has 

 diverted a lot of the water from the infiltration-ground water 

 route to the direct run-off route. 2 



You can understand this barrier if you consider the various 

 ways man has found water to be useful. Mr. Thorndike Saville 

 has listed them in what he considers the order of their impor 

 tance: (1) moisture from the atmosphere which is essential to 

 organic life, that is, all living things; (2) drinking water for 

 man; (3) water for agriculture and the raising of animals; 

 (4) water as a home for fish and seafood; (5) water for the 

 generation of power; (6) water for industry; (7) water as a 

 means of transportation; (8) water as a means of removing 

 and purifying waste; (9) water for recreation such as swim 

 ming, fishing, boating; (10) water for political boundaries; 

 (11) water for ice. 3 



Here are eleven jobs which man expects water to do for 

 him on its journey from the sky to the earth and back again. 

 He begins by setting water to work the minute it strikes the 

 earth. The way in which water is used at this beginning deter 

 mines pretty much how well it will do the remainder of its 

 work during the rest of its journey back to the clouds. 



2 H. S. Person, Little Waters, a Study of Headwater Streams & Other Little 

 Waters, Their Use and Relations to the Land, November, 1935, Revised April, 

 1936. United States Government Printing Office, Washington, 1936, pp. 7-9. 



3 Parkins and Whitaker, op. cit., p. 288. 



