316 NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



" As I believe that a speedy change in the existing policy is urgent, I request 

 that you will give an early consideration to this matter, and favor me with such 

 statements and recommendations as may be laid before Congress for action during 

 this session. 



" I have the honor to be, your obedient servant, 



" HOKE SMITH, 



" Secretary." 



The President of the Academy at once appointed the follow- 

 ing committee to consider and report on the subject in question: 

 Charles S. Sargent (chairman), Henry L. Abbot, Alexander 

 Agassiz, Wm. H. Brewer, Arnold Hague, and Gifford Pinchot. 

 The President was also, ex officio, a member of the committee. 



It was obvious at the outset that no report of value could be 

 made without a personal inspection by the committee of the 

 forested areas of the public domain and the forest reservations, 

 and on the representations of President Wolcott Gibbs, the sum 

 of $25,000 was appropriated by Congress in the Sundry Civil 

 Act, approved June n, 1896, to enable the Secretary of the 

 Interior to meet the expenses of an investigation and report by 

 the Academy. The committee already mentioned being ac- 

 ceptable to the Secretary of the Interior, was authorized to visit 

 the various forested areas and reservations at the expense of the 

 Government. The members of the committee, with the excep- 

 tion of the President, Wolcott Gibbs (whose condition of health 

 forbade his going into the field) and Professor Agassiz, travelled 

 westward on July 2, 1896, and spent three months in laborious 

 study and inspection of the forests. They traversed large areas 

 of unreserved forest, and visited all the reservations established 

 prior to 1897, except six, which were either of limited extent or 

 well-known to the members of the committee. 



The conditions which they found were truly lamentable. 

 Except in the national parks, which were effectively guarded by 

 detachments of the Army, vast sections of the forest reserves 

 were being destroyed annually by fires started by careless or 

 ignorant campers and hunters, or by sparks from locomotives. 

 In some instances they were started by shepherds or by mining 



