Valley tMt'are actually "below sea levieri, Setween the intense subzero tem- 

 peratures 01 the "Arctic .wastes and the moist, tropical climate of the Isthmus 

 of Panama are recorded infinite' gradations of climate and temperat-ore. 



This diversity results' in amazing, differences in the tj/pes of "both fauna 



andjflora.^ The tiny lichen clinging to a. glacier-scored .rooJ?- pr.otruding 



above, the Arctic ice cap requires half a century for a few inches of growth, 

 ' while • along the- G-ulf the rank" jungle -springs" up 'almost as rapidly as the 

 axe and the machete can cut it down. The "brown "bear of Alaska — the largest 

 meat-eating land animal, and the pigmy shrew ,7 -weighing less than one-fifth 

 of an ounce, are alike a'Dle" to find precisely the conditions each requires 

 in order to live. So- does the California condor, the _ largest living "bird, 

 v/ith a v.ing spread of almost 10 feet, and so also does the v/ren, scarcely 

 as large as one's thum'b. The narwhal, .the sea lion, the polar 'Dear, and 

 the manatee, together with thousands upon thousands of other species, have 

 their homes on the shores of a continent where Nature seems to have exerted 

 her limitless capacity for providing accommodation for the greatest possi'ble 

 numlDer and variety of creatures. 



The v.'hite pioneers., explorers, and trappers sav.r such an a'bundance of_ 

 game end, other v;ildlife. when they came to I-Iorth America that they could not 

 adequately descri'be it. They spoke of flights of pigeons so tremendous that 

 they "darkened the sun for hours on end," hut the phjrase has little meaning 

 today, oecause we ourselves have never seen such spectacles and can scarcely 

 imagine v/hat they were like. Their 'tales of "bison herds . that covered t-hc 

 prairie for .mile after mile aLso fail to give us a picture of the sights " 

 that met the v.rondering gaze of those early travelers. V.nien those men noted 

 a flight of wild fowl, they actually sav/ millions of individual ducks and_- 

 geese; \-;hen v;e of today ohserve a flight of v/ild f ovi , v-e are fortunate in- 

 deed if it numbers a fev; thousands. .,,..,.- 



AEUm)AlTCS inni^AIRED BY I^IDIAiTS 



Enormous numbers of birds and other forms of vildlife were present 

 despite the fact that the aborigines v/ho inhabited the continent lived 

 principally upon the fish and game. One might think it strange that wild- 

 life shoiild have persisted in such overwhelming abundance under constant 

 utilization for human needs, whereas it declined, before another race of men 

 who lived principally upon agricultural products — upon grain, vegetables, 

 milk, and the meat of domestic animals. I'lhen v;e examine, the facts under- 

 lying this apparent inconsistency' v/e shall find the a.nsv7cr to the coniondrum 

 in the different. v;ays the two races used the land— the. primordial domain of 

 the native fauna, — and in the relative sparseness of. the Indian population. 



' , The American Indians we're gardeners but not farmers. In their small 

 primitive plots they cultivated beans, corn,' and tobacco, but in such limited 

 quantities tha,t had their families been compelled to depend upon these 

 products alone, they v/ould have starved, Por food and clothing they de- 

 pended for the most part upon v.ildlife and xmcultivated native plants. 



Then, too, the Indian population was sparse and shifting, scattered 

 over the vast area of the Hev; V.'orld. Their crude agricultural enterprises 



- 2 - 



