cumulated wealth of woodland soil. Nature's anciently 

 established equilibrium is disturbed at its foundation, 

 and the native insects, associated from the beginning 

 with the native flowering plants and rarely hurtful to 

 the farmer, perish largely with the vegetation and the 

 soil that they have lived and bred upon, leaving the field 

 clear for the invasion of destructive foreign species. 



The birds, in turn, who feed upon the native insects 

 and control the balance of insect increase, no longer find 

 their former food supply or shelter, and either vanish 

 from the wasted region or continue in diminished 

 numbers. 



Much of the land thus wrecked by axe and fire in the 

 well-watered eastern portion of our country must ulti- 

 mately be reclothed with forest as its best economic use, 

 and none can be so well adapted to it as that which na- 

 ture clothed it with originally, rich alike in beauty and 

 in valuable species. But it will be long before such land 

 again develops the humus covering the native forest 

 flora and its associated life require, and unless prompt 

 measures are taken to conserve them till it does the 

 task of resettling future forests with the rich, indigenous 

 life that is the region's own will have become impossible. 



It has, therefore, long seemed to the writer that the 

 only way in which to conserve for the enjoyment and 

 study of future generations any portions of our coun- 

 try which by good fortune still remain in their natural 

 condition is the reservation of appropriate tracts, such 

 as may properly be set aside, with the explicit stipula- 

 tion that they be left essentially in their natural state. 



This brings me to the crucial point: Where is the best 

 spot, if only a single spot can be thus preserved, for the 

 perfection of this ideal! A detailed knowledge of the 

 geography, the flora, and to some extent the soil condi- 

 tions of eastern North America, acquired through twen- 

 ty-five years of active exploration in New England, the 

 Maritime Provinces, Quebec, Newfoundland, and Labra- 



4 



