are especially fitted to
cope with them, and so they run riot and contest with man the gains he
has won from the ancient possessors of the land.

Of all the large questions which the consideration of the future of
man's work on this planet opens to us, there is none which now appears
to be more serious or, in its consequences, more far-reaching than
this concerning the treatment which he is to give to the old natural
order of sea and land. The very first condition of civilization is an
utter spoiling of that order, so far as the land areas are concerned,
in the fields of the richest and highest life. It is clearly
impossible to avoid this destruction over all the surface which we win
to culture. Spare as we may, the subversion of the ancient balances
and adjustments must be complete before the earth is ready for our
tillage and other modes of use. This overturning is a part of the
destiny of man. It is a characteristic of the new dispensation which
came with his progressive desires. Yet the rational quality which has
led to the mastery of man may be trusted to bring him to a point where
he will endeavor to minimize the ill effects of his actions on the
life which has been placed in his hands.

In considering the ways in which we can mitigate the evils of our rule
over organic nature, we at once see that our aim should be to preserve
all the varieties of living creatures from destruction, provided they
are not distinctly harmful to man, and this with the intention of
keeping for our successors in the inheritance all that can in any way
afford a foundation for further experiments in domestication, materials
for learned inquiries, or pleasure in contemplation. To attain this
object we cannot trust to the share of this life which can be brought
into zoological and botanical gardens, however extensive and well
managed. The only way is to make certain reservations in various parts
of the world, each containing an area and a variety of conditions great
enough to afford a safe lodgment for a true sample of the life of an
organic province. Owing to the fact that these provinces are never
sharply bounded, it would naturally be impossible to select reservations
which would in a complete manner represent all the conditions of the
biologic societies; but if properly distributed the outlying animals and
plants could in most if not all cases be introduced into one or other
of these protected fields, so that there would be little reas