National Parks — The Need of the Future. 31 



industrial purposes, but I do say that it has been used in some 

 places to the detriment, and even to the ruin, of scenery. It 

 has been used in Niagara, for instance, to such an extent as 

 to change completely the character of what was once the most 

 beautiful waterfall landscape in the whole world. Those of 

 you who did not see it, as I did, forty-two years ago, and are 

 not in a position to contrast it now with what it was then, 

 cannot know what a wretched shadow of its former self it has 

 become — not so much by the diminution of the flow of the river 

 as by the hideous erections which line the shores. It is not too 

 late to repair what has been done, and I hope the day will 

 come when the pristine flow of its waters will be restored, and 

 when the devastating agencies will have been removed. That 

 we will leave for a future which has begun to appreciate scenery 

 more highly than men did thirty years ago, when the ruin of 

 which I speak was beginning to be wrought. 



Taking all these causes together, you can see how many 

 encroachments there are upon the unique beauty of your coun- 

 try; and I beg you to consider that, although your country is 

 vast and has scope of natural beauty far greater than we can 

 boast in little countries like England or Scotland, even your 

 scenery is not inexhaustible, and with your great population and 

 the growing desire to enjoy the beauties of nature, you have not 

 got any more than you need. Fortunately, you have made a 

 good beginning in the work of conservation. You have led the 

 world in the creation of national parks. I have seen three or 

 four of these. I have been in the Yosemite twice, in the Yel- 

 lowstone twice, and in the splendid forest region which you have 

 around that mountain which the people of Seattle now insist 

 on calling Mount Rainier — no doubt the name given by Van- 

 couver — but which used, when I first explored its forests, to 

 be called by the more sonorous Indian name Tacoma ; and also 

 in that superb reserve on the north side of the great canon of 

 the Colorado River, as well as in others of minor extent in 

 other parts of the country. The creation of such national parks 

 is good, and it has had the admirable effect of setting other 

 countries to emulate your example. Australia and New Zea- 

 land have followed that example. New Zealand, in the district 

 of its hot springs and geysers, has made a public scenic area 



