UNCLE SAM’S BIGGEST BANK ACCOUNT 29 
the low grade ores will be drawn upon. The deposits 
of anthracite coal will be completely consumed during 
the next fifty to seventy-five years while the bituminous 
may last two centuries and the supplies of natural gas 
and petroleum will doubtless be depleted long before 
the end of the present century. The total estimated 
supply of petroleum amounts to 23,000,000,000 barrels 
and the amount annually consumed is 265,000,000 
barrels. 
Animals—The situation regarding conservation as 
applied to our animal life cannot be better expressed 
than in the words of Dr. Hornaday when he says: 
“Forty years ago the preservation of wild life was 
regarded chiefly as a sentimental cause of practical in- 
terest to the sportsmen only. Today it affects the 
lumber pile, the market basket and the dinner pail.” 
While the North American continent with the variety 
of forage it afforded originally possessed game in 
marvelous variety and abundance great inroads have 
been made upon the nation’s supply. Investigators 
claim that in view of the rapidity with which game 
ean be killed with the modern repeating rifle or shotgun 
there is no species of game which can withstand the 
attacks of man. The Indian legend told that the 
buffaloes came forth in an endless procession from a 
huge cavern and that there would always be buffalo 
for the red men. Perhaps there would have been in 
spite of the fact that they killed them in hundreds by 
driving herds over high cliffs. With the coming of 
the white man the slaughter for the market com- 
menced. Splendid specimens were killed for their 
skins or even for their tongues while the carcasses were 
allowed to rot. In place of the 5,000,000 which is the 
estimate placed upon the number in the United States 
