CHAPTER THREE 



THE EARTH AS IT WAS BEFORE THE COMING OF 

 CIVILIZED MEN 



For ages, on the silent forest here, 

 Thy beams did fall before the red man came 



To dwell beneath them ; in their shade the deer 

 Fed, and feared not the arrow's deadly aim. 



Nor tree was felled, in all that world of woods, 



Save by the beaver's tooth, or winds, or rush of floods. 



WlLUAM CUI-LEN BeYANT, 



A Walk at Sunset 



The earth has not always been as it is now. Those parts 

 now possessed by the more civilized peoples have been very 

 greatly changed. If we could look back and see some of 

 the countries as they were long ago, we should hardly know 

 them. In certain lands the forests have been cut down, 

 the wild creatures driven away, and the soil so carelessly 

 cultivated that it has become poor. . In other lands Nature's 

 gifts have been carefully used; even the barren deserts 

 have been turned into green fields and blooming gardens for 

 hundreds of miles. 



Let us try to picture to ourselves how our own country 

 looked when white men first found and explored it. A few 

 hundred years ago it was the home of wild animals and In- 

 dians only. We have been given our freedom in one of the 

 richest of Nature's gardens, and, like so many children, have 

 tried to see who could gather the most treasures from it. 

 We have given little attention to keeping up the garden. 



If you have been in some part of the country that is still 

 wild and unsettled, it wUl help you to form a picture of how 

 the entire land once looked. If you have been in one of our 



