Year: 1873

shall be no let or hindrance to the benign
efforts Of science to mitigate the horrors Of
the storm and the shipwreck.


A Great State Park In tho Adiron-


dacks-A Beautiful Idea and an


Urgent Necessity.


Among the most meritorious acts of our
late Legislature is the act in pursuance of
which q estate Park Commission" of seven
gentlemen was appointed to inquire into
and report upon the expediency of securing,
setting apart and preserving certain wild lands
in our northern counties of Essex, Franklin,
Hamilton, Herkimer, St Lawrence and Lewis,
as grand public State Park This commit
tee, consisting of Ex-Governor. Horatio Sey-
mour, Patrick H. Agan, William B. Taylor,
George Raynor, William A. Wheeler, Yer
planck Colvin and Franklin B. Hough, in their
report (the material portions of which we
published yesterday are Of opinion that the
protection of a great portion Of those forests
(the forests of the great Adirondack group
of mountains) from wanton destruction sis
absolutely and Immediately required"


The committee do not favor the creation of
an expensive and exclusive Park for mere pur-
poses Of recreation. They recommend it
simply for the preservation Of the timber as a
measure of political economy. They submit
that this forest region Of the Adirondacks is
perhaps the most remarkable watershed of
the eastern half of North America, and that
the preservation of its timber is of the highest
importance to the material interests of the
State; that those vast woods have powerful
influence upon the general climate Of the
State-upon the rainfall, winds and tempera-
ture- moderating storms and equaiizing
throughout the year the moisture discharged
from the atmosphere; that the clearing away
of those Adirondack woods will inevitably
endanger the whole line of the Hudson River
to its mouth from the sudden melting of the
Adirondack SHOWS and the consequent destruc-
invaluable forests remain the deep Winter
SHOWS Of those mountains will be protected
from the direct rays of the sun in Spring, and
will thus continue to be slowly and gradually
melted away.


Such are the leading reasons advanced by





Park. Through period of many years, in
our frequent appeals for the preservation of
our forests, the readers of the New YORK
HERALD have become familiar with the line of
argument pursued by Governor Seymour and
his colleagues upon this important subject.
We have shown from time to time that vast
timberless regions are subject to the fercest
ofh &c
and inundations where they are not utterly
rainless; we have shown from historical
records how countries, which had been rich
and fruitful while covered to great extent
with woods, became dry and sterile from the
destruction of their timber. In support of
these instructive and important facts to our
destructive people we may here remind them
that if our States and Territories of the great
West are peculiarly subject to tornadoes,
water spouts, deluging rains and to all the
violent alterations known in the climates of
the temperate zone, it is because the great
West is mostly q region of timberless prairies,
over which the elements have free play and
have nothing to arrest them in their wild
caprices; and that, on the other hand, if our
Atlantic slope, from the Alleghanies to the
sea, is comparatively exempt from these de-
structive visiations of droughts and hurri-
canes and delugng floods, it is because of its
forests, which serve at once to produce o
gentler and more general diffusion of our rain
fall, and to retain it to feed the soil and to
maintain continuous supply to our living
wells, springs, lakes and streams.


The report states that eight hundred and
thirty-fou thousand four hundred and eighty
acres, or one thousand three hundred and three
square miles, of this forest region are upon
the Hudson River side of the water shed, and
that this would be the approximate area
required for the Park in view Of the protection
of the sources of the Hudson River. It is
beautiful idea, and the project is particu-
larly attractive because of its surprising
practical importance. The inquiry naturally
follows Why should not every State and every
Territory have its State or Territorial Park?
The grand and wonderful National Park of
the Yellowstone is destined to be, and within
few years, to Summer travellers the greatest
attraction on the face of the globe. 1t will
bring millions of dollars into the country
where now millions are taken away. But |
above all other considerations is that of
Governor Seymour and his committee, that
the protection of great portion of the Adiron-
dack forests from wanton destruction, as
measure of wise precaution and political econ
omy, ''is absolutely and Immediately re-
quired"


The Opcning OF the Yellowstone River
y h ro 70 Navigation.


The successful exploration of the Yellow
stona River lately announced bY General