CHAPTER FOUR 



NATURE'S UNEQUAL DISTRIBUTION OF HER GUTS 



Pure, fresh air is free to all of us, for, like an ocean, it sur- 

 rounds the whole earth. We need pure water just as much 

 as we do pure air, but it is not always easy to get. A large 

 part of the earth is buried beneath water so salt that we 

 cannot use it. Other parts of the earth are so dry that if 

 we venture into them we may ,die of thirst. The solid land 

 on which we make our homes is not all of the same value. 

 Thousands of square miles are so rocky or so cold or so dry 

 that they support no living thing. Other thousands of 

 miles of the earth have been so favored by Nature that they 

 are fairly alive with every sort of creature. 



We say that a country is rich in natural resources when 

 it has an abundance of those things that men need or can 

 make use of for their pleasure and comfort. A country is 

 poor when it has few of these things. 



The first men were poor, although they lived in a rich 

 part of the earth. They did not know how to make use of 

 what lay around them. If civilized men are poor now, it 

 is because they have wasted Nature's gifts or because they 

 live in a country upon which she has bestowed httle. 



When we say that the far North where the Eskimos live 

 is a dreary, desolate region, w^ mean that it lacks most of 

 those things necessary to make men comfortable and happy. 

 When we read of the life of the wandering Arabs in the 

 desert of Arabia, we think of a country to which N9.ture has 

 not given its share. 



When we speak of Spain as poor, we have in mind a 

 country once favored by Nature, but no longer prosperous 



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