How Far Will Nature Restore Her Gifts? 49 



and valuable as those of the first forest. The "big trees" 

 of the Sierra Nevada Mountains are found nowhere else in 

 the world, for they are the last of their race. Some of these 

 trees are more than 4000 years old. They stood here when 

 our forefathers were still savages and lived in trees or caves. 

 Much of the region where these trees are found has now 

 been reserved as a park. If the lumberman had been al- 

 lowed to get at them, they would have soon been gone for- 

 ever. 



It is far more difficult to destroy completely most of the 

 species of forest trees than it is to destroy the species of 

 animals and birds. We can cut down the trees and in some 

 cases they will grow again from sprouts. Many will hide 

 away in remote places and furnish seed for new forests. 



The animals as well as the plants have had a long history. 

 They have had a harder struggle than the plants, because 

 many of them prey upon one another. We often dig up 

 the skeletons of strange animals unlike any now Hving. 

 These must have all been killed long ago. Each species or 

 kind of animal now living must have come off victorious in 

 the struggle with its enemies. 



Does it not seem a heartless thing for us, who call our- 

 selves civilized, to destroy so completely any species of 

 animal or plant that not one of its kind remains ahve? 

 No species which we destroy will ever come back again, 

 and its place will always remain empty. There are a few 

 predatory animals and birds that destroy vast numbers of 

 useful ones. We should keep these in check by every means 

 in our power, but for our thoughtless destruction of the 

 valuable ones the world will always be poorer. 



What of the mineral treasures hidden away in the.^earth ? 



