228 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 



adopted and protected by man. Already, with the mere 

 beginnings of this culture, we find that several of the large 

 beasts and birds and a number of plants have been destroyed. 

 New as civilization is on this continent, it has already brought 

 the moose and the buffalo to a point where they are on the 

 verge of extinction, and in the Old World the wild ancestors 

 of the horse and the bull have quite disappeared from the 

 wildernesses. Within a few centuries the greater birds, the 

 Dinornis and Epiornis, as well as the interesting Dodo, have 

 vanished from the southern isles which they inhabited. In the 

 century to come we can foresee that this process of effacement 

 of the ancient life will go on with accelerated velocity. 



It seems inevitable that man should play the part of a 

 destroyer. It is his place to break down the ancient order 

 determined by what we call natural forces and in its stead to 

 set a new accord in which the economy of the earth will be in 

 a great measure controlled by his intelligence. Even those 

 who most keenly sympathize with the wilderness life, are not 

 likely to object to the changes which are necessary to open 

 the way for this new dispensation. They may fairly ask, how- 

 ever, that hereafter the displacement of the ancient life shall 

 be brought about with foresight and with the exercise of the 

 utmost care in minimizing the sacrifices which we are called 

 on to make. Naturalists may fairly ask men to remember 

 that each of these species which we are forced to destroy 

 represents the toil and pains of unimaginable ages, and that 

 when these creatures are swept away they can never be recov- 

 ered. Whatever new species may come, by processes of 

 evolution from the life which remains after we have done our 

 will with the wilderness, we shall never see again the forms 

 which have passed away. 



