The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1895-06-05
ON THE OTHER SIDE.
Letter From One who Argues in Favor
of the Reservation, and Against
the Sheep.

the Oregonian and other papers have
copied articles from THE CHRONICLE
with reference to the mountain reserve
from the devastation of sheep, have
waited to see some patriotic cItiHeD
strike the note of alarm in behalf of the
preservation of this fair heritage of ours !;
this beautiful mountain land, bright
with it's silYery streams, Offering to q
people capable of using it, the power to
make happy homes on many hillside
and on many = mountain prairie. No
one speaks. Is the wool over every.
ones eyes? Is patriotism, when it
means anything but spread-eagle ora
tory, forever dead? or did it stay with
the Sunday of our grandfathers and
some other good things on the other side
of the Rockies? Is John Muir's voice
the only one to be heard asking that the
life of the mountains, that makes them
other than mere piles of dirt and rock,
be saved to be handed down a sacred in
heritance to those who shall walk in our
beautiful Oregon when the footsteps of
this generation are forever silent? Let
me copy paragraph from him. Re-
ferring to the wholesale destruction of
forest by lumbermen, he said:
"These mill ravages are small as COM
pared with the comprehensive destruc-
tion caused by 'sheepmen.' Incredible
numbers of sheep are driven to the
mountain pastures every summer, and
their course is marked by desolation
Every wild garden is trodden down the
shrubs are stripped of leaves. as if de-
voured by locusts, and the woods are
burned. Running fires are set every
where, to clear the ground of prestrate
trunks, and facilitate the movements OF
the hocks and to improve the pastures.
The entire forest belt is thus swept and
devastated from one extremity of the
range to the other" In another place,
speaking of Shadow Lake, he says
"On my last visit, as was saunterine
along the shore on the strip of sand be-
tween the water and the sod, I was
startled by a human track, which at
once saw belonged to some shepherd.
None but shepherd could make such
a track, and, after tracing 1t a few min
utes, began to fear that he might be
seeking pasturage. For what else conld
he be seeking? Returning from the
glaciers shortly afterward, my worst
fears were realized. A trail had been
made down the mountain side from the
north. and all the gardens and meadows
were destroyed by horde of hoofed
h. -
money changers were in the temple"
These are not the words of an alarm
ist, but of one who sees with his own
eyes the evil being wrought. Do we
need to be told the rest of the story
OF the mountain storms washing the
loosened soil from small pockets and
crevices, carrying it with ruinous rush
to the bitter sea, leaving hopeless ruin
in place of nourishing beauty?
Look at Spain, an object lesson within
easy reach of historical record. The
home of the Merino, it's naked, treeless,
shrubless hills affurd no longer partur-
age for hocks. 1t is no question in
Syria between pasturage for the gentle,
loving kline mother, the foster mother
of all who are yet in the s'milky way
and the ''hoofed locusts" that kill the
range and leave barrenness wherever
their sharp hoof prints are found. The
Syrian shepherd has settled that ques-
ton forever.
What do we think of the young spend
thrift who draws on the future in the
way of post obit? Is not young Oregon
doing that identical thing with her
possessions7 With no thought of the
coming day; with no regard for the In
tegrity of our possessions, that these
vast herds, for which we seem to have
little use, may be fed, Today we imperil
the very existence of our state, every
acre of which is, in the slow, but benef-
cent working OF Nature, the gift of the
mountains.
'iFor the strength of the hills we bless Thee,
Our God Our fathers tlod
Thou hast made Thy children mighty
By the touch of the mountain sod
Let all conspire with Lawmakers
whenever they try to preserve this glo-