Preservation of the Wild 



The country is now denuded of soil, the rocks are 

 practically bare; it supports only a few lions, 

 hyaenas, gazelles and Bedouins. Even if the trade 

 routes and mines, on which Brooks Adams in his 

 "New Empire" dwells so strongly as factors of 

 all civilization, were completely restored, the pop- 

 ulation could not be restored nor the civilization, 

 because there is nothing in this country for people 

 to live upon. The same is true of North Africa, 

 which, according to Gibbon, was once the granary 

 of the Roman Empire. In Greece to-day the 

 goats are now destroying the last vestiges of the 

 forests. 



I venture the prediction that the sheep industry 

 on naturally semi-arid lands is doomed; that the 

 future feeding of both sheep and cattle will be on 

 irrigated lands, and that the forests will be care- 

 fully guarded by State and Nature as natural 

 reservoirs. 



COMMERCIALISM AND IDEALISM. 



By contrast to the sheep question, which is a 

 purely economic or utilitarian one, and will settle 

 itself, if we do not settle it by legislation based on 

 scientific observation, the preservation of the 

 Sequoia and of our large wild animals is one of 

 pure sentiment, of appreciation of the ideal side 



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