44 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LIV. No. 1385 



situated, a practical evidence that the people 

 closest to the park are alive to the importance 

 of our government owning the land. 



The contributors and the amounts contrib- 

 uted were: 



Eesearoh Fund of the National Geographic 



Society $ 5,000 



W. F. Chandler, Fresno, California 6,000 



George F. Eastman, Rochester, New York. . 15,000 



"William Kent, Kentfield, California 250 



Stephen T. Mather, Director National Park 



Service 14,000 



Charles "W. Merrill, Berkeley, California.. 250 



James K. Moffit, San Francisco 500 



John Barton Payne, former Secretary of 



Interior 2,000 



Julius Bosenwald, Chicago, Illinois 1,000 



Rudolph Spreckels, San Francisco 1,000 



Special Tax Levy of Tulare County, Cali- 

 fornia 10,000 



$55,000 



Thus the National Geographic Society has 

 conveyed to the United States government a 

 total acreage in Sequoia ^National Park of 

 1,916 acres, purchased at a total cost of 

 $96,330. 



It should be noted that the gifts were not 

 solicited by the society. The National Geo- 

 graphic Society asks its memberehip for no 

 contributions of any sort. Its publications 

 and its scientific and educational activities 

 are entirely supported by their dues. 



Every member of the society may feel that 

 he had a part in this enduring gift to his 

 country and to posterity, for the funds appro- 

 priated directly by the society for the pur- 

 chase of the Sequoias came from the fraction 

 of the dues of members set aside for such 

 benefactions. 



The tender was made in the name of the 

 National Geographic Society because, as the 

 director of the National Park Service, Mr. 

 Mather, put it: 



It is only proper that this gift should come to 

 the government through the National Geographic 

 Society, in view of the keen interest which the 

 society has taken in the purchase of the other 



private holdings in this park. It was through di- 

 rect gifts by your society that we were able to 

 save the Giant Forest, which contains the finest 

 stand of Sequoia Washingtoniana in the Sierra. 



Following the presentation, Albert B. Fall, 

 Secretary of the Interior, wrote to Gilbert 

 Grosvenor, president of the National Geo- 

 graphic Society: 



Dear Mr. Grosvenor: It was a very pleasant 

 surprise when you called on me on April 20 and, 

 on behalf of the National Geographic Society, pre- 

 sented the title deeds and other pertinent papers 

 conveying to the United States the so-called Mar- 

 tin tract of 640 acres in the Sequoia National 

 Park, recently purchased, at a cost of $55,000 by 

 your Society, through the generosity of its mem- 

 bers, in order that this area with its fine stand 

 of trees might be preserved for the American 



I have already personally expressed to you my 

 sincere thanks and my acceptance of the proffered 

 gift. Your society on several preceding occasions 

 has stepped in at a critical moment and acquired 

 several simUaj areas in this same park, thereby 

 saving from extermination other wonderful trees 

 that would otherwise have fallen under the axe. 



Your society is to be highly commended on its 

 substantial expression of a high public spirit, and 

 on behalf of the United States I again want to 

 express to you, and through you to the contribu- 

 tors, my deepest appreciation of your generous 

 and considerate action. 



Respectfully, 



Albert B. Fall 

 Mr. Gilbert Grosvenor, 

 President, National Geographic Society, 

 Washington, D. C. 



To mankind, throughout the ages, trees 

 have been the most human-like, the most 

 companionable, of all inanimate things. Aris- 

 totle thought they must have perceptions and 

 passions. An infinitely more scientific genera- 

 tion still is sensible to their mystical power. 



More and more will Americans visit Sequoia 

 National Park to gaze upon the majesty of 

 " Nature's forest masterpieces " in their last 

 stand. National Geographic Society members 

 may well be proud that they had a part in 

 preserving for all time these mementos of a 

 past far beyond the records of written history. 



