Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1879.djvu/31

Rh public lands. It is a matter of experience that such fires on the public lands of the Western States and Territories are sometimes set by Indians, but in a majority of cases by hunters, mining prospectors, and tourists who negligently leave their camp-fires burning when moving from place to place, as well as by persons who deliberately set timber on fire for the purpose of deadening and thus preparing it for particular use. It is said that larger areas of timber land are devastated by such fires than by all other kinds of depredation, and this is probably true. I therefore repeat the recommendation made in my first annual report, that a law be enacted prescribing a severe penalty for the willful or negligent setting of fires upon the public lands of the United States, and also for the recovery of all damages thereby sustained. It may in many cases be difficult to obtain the testimony necessary for the conviction of persons guilty of this offense; but if the law is successfully enforced only in some instances, it will serve to direct general attention to the danger to which any one who willfully or negligently sets fire to public timber exposes himself, and thus to make many persons, who so far have given no thought to the possible consequences of their negligence or recklessness, more careful in the future.

I would also repeat the recommendation made in former reports that the President be authorized to appoint a commission, composed of qualified persons, to study the laws and practices adopted in other countries for the preservation and cultivation of forests, and to report to Congress a plan for the same object, applicable to our circumstances. The time is fast approaching when forest-culture will be to the people of the United States as important a question as it is in older countries; and then it will be a subject of painful wonder to thinking men, how it could have been so long neglected.

The waste and destruction of the redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) and “big trees” (Sequoia gigantea) of California have been and continue to be so great as to cause apprehension that these species of trees, the noblest and oldest in the world, will entirely disappear unless some measure be soon taken to preserve at least a portion of them. I am informed that in the more inaccessible sections of the coast range in the northern and on the west side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the southern section of California, some forests of these trees still remain, that may and should be preserved, either wholly or at least in part. The importance of preserving these species of trees in sufficient quantity to serve to this and coming generations as an illustration of the magnificence of the grandest of primeval forests, is so great as to have attracted the attention of men of science in both Europe and America, from some of the most eminent of whom I have received communications on this subject. It is especially desirable that the big trees in the above named localities be preserved, as the “Mariposa Grove” now celebrated for