SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN REGION". 



185 



The General Government ought to step in, before it is too late, and 

 take possession of the whole region. The Yellowstone Park, far away 

 and to all but a few inaccessible, should be supplemented by this nat- 

 ural reservation, which is easil}' reached by the great majority of the 

 people of the United States. Take your map and you will find that 

 from Boston on the east around by Buffalo, Cleveland, Cincinnati, 

 Chicago, and St. Louis to New Orleans, Jacksonville, and so on up to 

 Washington every cit}' on the imaginary circuit has railroad facilities 

 bringing it within not more at most than one night's ride of Asheville, 

 the central point in the Blue Ridge and Great Smoky country. Estab- 

 lish a park there and people from every large city this side of the 

 Mississippi would be visiting it in large numbers at all seasons of the 

 year. 



As an opportunity for conferring on the citizens of the country a 

 means of great enjoyment, this chance for Congressional action is 

 unique. But that really would be only an incident of the work. In 

 this elevated land are multitudes of clear, sweet streams delivering 

 water to the Atlantic coast and to the Mississippi River. The divide 

 is in the possible park. If the timber is all stripped from these hills, 

 the streams will dry up and the ultimate loss will be serious and wide- 

 spread. Leading citizens of North Carolina and other States adjoining 

 have recently held a meeting and forrued themselves into the Appala- 

 chian National Park Association to push the project. It ought to go 

 without much pushing. All that is needed is to set people thinking 

 about it. 



Look at what the Government might do, and at what, on the con- 

 trary, will be done if the National Government does not come in and 

 protect nature there. Once done the mischief could never be undone. 

 The loss would not be local, but national. Everybody who fails to see 

 the North Carolina mountains suffers a direct loss, whether he knows 

 it or not. Open the region to the whole country and let these sights 

 be assured and available at all times, and the park would be one of 

 the most popular resorts in the United States. 



Congress ought to jump at the chance to get possession of the great 

 tract, at least 500,000 acres, said to be purchaseable now at hardly 

 more than nominal figures. The cost of a single battle ship would 

 give us this park available for future generations as well as for our- 

 selves. It is to be hoped the committee will set the work going early 

 and carry it to the success that the American people will wish for it 

 and for themselves. 



[The Scientific American.] 



Within about a day's travel of New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, 

 Washington, a;nd most of the Atlantic seaboard, and quite as accessible 

 to Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Louisville, Indianapolis, and St. Louis there 

 are vast stretches of virgin forests — along the line of the Great Smoky 



