July 15, 1921] 



SCIENCE 



43 



or advice regarding the matters covered by 

 the foregoing article, even if these take the 

 form of destructive criticism. It seerns to me 

 that here, as in so many other cases, no far- 

 reaching plans should be adopted until we 

 have had a free discusion in vifhich all angles 

 of the subject have been considered. I am 

 therefore hopeful that this communication 

 may call fortli replies, either addressed to me 

 personally or published in the columns of 

 Science.^ 



F. B. Sumner 

 ScRipps Institution foe 

 Biological Eesearch, 

 La Jolla, California 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY 



COMPLETES ITS GIFTS OF 



BIG TREES 



The trustees and officers of the National 

 Geographic Society are deeply gratified to 

 announce to members that the society has been 

 continuing its effort, begun in 1916, to pre- 

 serve the Big Trees of Sequoia National Park. 



By a final purchase in April, 1921, of 640 

 acres of land in Sequoia National Park, these 

 famous trees, oldest and most massive among 

 all living things, the only ones of their kind 

 in the world, have been saved; they will not 

 be cut down and converted into lumber. 



Were a monument of human erection to be 

 destroyed, it might be replaced ; but had these 

 aborigines of American forests been felled, 

 they would have disappeared forever. The 

 Big Trees could no more be restored than 

 could those other survivals of indigenous 



3 Those who are desirous of reading fuller dis- 

 cussions of wild life conservation and the preserva- 

 tion of natural conditions are referred to articles 

 by Harper ("Natural History," Vol. XIX., 1919), 

 Vajn Name (Science, July 25, 1919), and Sumner 

 {Scientific Monthly, March, 1920). Two books by 

 Hornaday are also to be recommended : ' ' Our 

 Vanishing Wild Life" (N. Y., Scribner 's, 1913), 

 and "Wild Life Conservation in Theory and 

 Practise" (Yale University Press, 1914). The 

 Ecological Socieity of America is likewise about 

 to publish a brief' resume of the "Reasons for 

 Preserving Natural Areas," which will doubtless 

 be rather widely distributed. 



American life, the red man and the buffalo, 

 should they become extinct. 



Members of the National Geographic So- 

 ciety will recall that, in 1916, Congress had 

 appropriated $50,000 for the purchase of cer- 

 tain private holdings in Sequoia National 

 Park, but the owners declined to sell for less 

 than $70,000. In that emergency the Na- 

 tional Geographic Society took the first step 

 toward saving the Big Trees by subscribing 

 the remaining $20,000. Thus 667 acres were 

 purchased. The society's equity in them was 

 conveyed to the government, and this tract 

 became the property, for all time, of the Ameri- 

 can people. 



In 1920, inspired by the first benefaction, 

 three members of the society gave the society 

 sums equivalent to the purchase price of 

 $21,330 necessary to acquire three more tracts, 

 aggregating 609 acres. Thus the original area 

 of Sequoias saved from destruction was almost 

 doubled. 



At the request of the donors, this area was 

 presented to the government, by the National 

 Geographic Society in June, 1920. This gift 

 was made possible by the generosity of Ste- 

 phen T. Mather, director of national park 

 service, who personally contributed $13,130; 

 by D. E. Skinner, of Seattle, who contributed 

 $5,000; and by Louis Titus, of Washington, 

 D. C, who contributed $3,200. 



There still remained one other important 

 private holding in Sequoia National Park 

 amounting to 640 acres. Through this tract, 

 which is covered by a splendid stand of giant 

 sugar-pine and fir, runs the road to Giant 

 Forest. 



To acquire this approach to the unique for- 

 est and to eliminate the last of the private 

 holdings in this natural temple, the National 

 Geographic Society and friends of the society, 

 in 1921, contributed $55,000, with which the 

 tract was purchased. On April 20, 1921, it 

 was formally tendered in the name of the 

 society, through Secretary of the Interior Al- 

 bert B. Fall, to the American people. 



This sum of $55,000 includes $10,000 from 

 the tax fund of Tulare County, California, 

 within which the Sequoia National Park is 



