356 OUR NATIONAL PARKS 



the grain. Over nearly all of the more acces- 

 sible slopes of the Sierra and Cascade moun- 

 tains in southern Oregon, at a height of from 

 three to six thousand feet above the sea, and for 

 a distance of about six hundred miles, this waste 

 and confusion extends. Happy robbers ! dwell- 

 ing in the most beautiful woods, in the most 

 salubrious climate, breathing delightful odors 

 both day and night, drinking cool living water, 

 — roses and lilies at their feet in the spring, 

 shedding fragrance and ringing bells as if cheer- 

 ing them on in their desolating work. There is 

 none to say them nay. They buy no land, pay 

 no taxes, dwell in a paradise with no forbidding 

 angel either from Washington or from heaven. 

 Every one of the frail shake shanties is a centre 

 of destruction, and the extent of the ravages 

 wrought in this quiet way is in the aggregate 

 enormous. 



It is not generally known that, notwithstand- 

 ing the immense quantities of timber cut every 

 year for foreign and home markets and mines, 

 from five to ten times as much is destroyed as is 

 used, chiefly by running forest fires that only the 

 federal government can stop. Travelers through 

 the West in summer are not likely to forget the fire- 

 work displayed along the various railway tracks. 

 Thoreau, when contemplating the destruction of 

 the forests on the east side of the continent, said 

 that soon the country would be so bald that every 



