Our Neglected Southern Coast 



871 



along the line of the coast. Such are the 

 strongholds of the civil war ; among them 

 Fort Fisher, the attack upon which is so 

 interestingly described by Admiral Evans 

 in his "Sailor's Log." There is also the 

 beach at North Island, South Carolina, 

 where, on the night of April 24, 1777, 

 Lafayette landed in America. 



Our southern coast is a region of sun- 

 shine free from the coastal fogs that are 

 so common north of Cape Hatteras. In 

 winter, however, beware of days when 

 there is something almost liquid in the 

 sparkling clearness of the sky and when 

 a genial balm is in the air, for on a sud- 

 den great rolling masses of black clouds 

 loom over the northern horizon and there 

 -comes roaring down upon one a wolf- 

 like wind, the raw coldness of which can 

 only be appreciated by those who have 

 been its victims. 



When all is said we must still be over- 

 come by the impression of desolation and 

 of gloom which is imparted by our south- 

 ern coast. It is the region of the wind- 

 ing estuary, lost in an ocean of waving 

 reeds ; of gnarled old live-oaks, with 

 their funereal pendants of Spanish moss 

 dangling like old gray beards from the 

 boughs ; of dark stagnant pools, with 

 the cypress towerinsr like silent sentinels 

 around their mysterious depths ; of brist- 

 ling thickets of bayonet-palm, and of 

 monotonous wastes covered sparsely 

 with the pine tree. 



•PAYING THE PENALTY OF WANTON WASTE 



Everywhere one mourns the wanton 

 •destruction of interesting animal life, 

 which might have been preserved to fas- 

 cinate the naturalist and furnish legiti- 



mate sport for the hunter. The streams 

 which once were the resort of myriads 

 of water fowl are now silent and de- 

 serted. The wild turkey, the deer, and 

 the bear are now very rarely met with. 

 The alligator has become extinct over 

 wide areas, the fisheries are declining, 

 and the forests themselves are falling be- 

 fore the axe or withering under the 

 wasteful bleeding of the turpentine in- 

 dustry. 



In Florida especially the people have 

 been most short-sighted in their failure 

 to respect the game laws, and the state 

 which might have retained unrivaled 

 attractions for the sportsman and the 

 naturalist has become largely barren of 

 interest for both. Almost the only effi- 

 cient protection of bird life in Florida is 

 that under the auspices of the national 

 Audubon societies, who, supported by 

 private subscriptions, have in some meas- 

 ure succeeded in the preservation of the 

 shore birds, although they must nearly 

 always labor in opposition to the local 

 sentiment of the people. 



The impending ruin of the forests and 

 extinction of the game in Florida are 

 surely depriving the state of one of its 

 chief attractions for the intelligent trav- 

 eler. That something is not done to se- 

 cure efficient conservation of Florida's 

 existing resources of game and forests 

 seems the more remarkable in view of 

 the well-known result of the wiser policy 

 of Maine, wherein their preservation has 

 caused an annually increasing revenue to 

 pour into the state, and this source of 

 income is now the chief support of the 

 population of its northern counties. 



SCENES FROM THE LAND WHERE EVERYBODY DRESSES IN WHITE 



THE interesting pictures of home life of the Korean given on pages 872-877 

 are from photographs by Rev. J. Z. Moore, a missionary to Kfofea of the 

 Methodist Episcopal Board of Foreign Missions. 



