34 Conservation Reader 



habitants became rich, and, instead of fearing Nature as 

 they once did, they came to lo^ve the rocks, the woods, the 

 streams, and the wild creatures. 



Let us now leave this rich and fertile land and come back 

 to it after hundreds of years have passed. We find a new 

 people living there and the country so changed that we can 

 hardly believe it is the same land. 



Yet it must be the same, for there are the very mountains 

 that were there long ago. To be sure, they do not look just 

 as they did. When we last saw them they were covered 

 with forests, but now they are barren and scarred with 

 many gulches. Here is the same river, but it also looks 

 different. While it was once overhung with trees and its 

 waters were so clear that we could see the fish in the bottom, 

 it now has a broad, sandy bed ; the trees are gone, and the 

 water is shallow and muddy. 



The new inhabitants of this land have a tired and dis- 

 couraged appearance. They have a hard struggle to get 

 enough to eat. The soil is rocky, and it takes much labor 

 to raise the scanty crops. They never seem able to gather 

 all the rocks from the fields, for the soil washes away and 

 new ones are constantly uncovered. 



Where are the forests that once grew here? We find in 

 their stead only a few stunted trees and bushes. There is 

 little grass and almost no flowers, even in spring. Sheep 

 and cattle wander far for their forage and do not have the 

 sleek appearance they once did. 



There are few wild creatures of any sort, for since there 

 are no woods there are few hiding places. Neither do we 

 see any birds, and we listen in vain for a song or note of any 

 kind. 



