ny of California_
Electric-power plant on north fork of the Feather River, California, for
generating electricity which is carried to distant places.]

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

COULD WE GET ALONG WITHOUT THE TREES?

We have come to depend upon trees to supply so many of our wants that we
could not possibly do without them. We can no more spare the trees than
Nature can. She needs them in her work of protecting the soil on the
steep slopes and of holding back the raindrops that they may keep the
springs alive. She needs them to form nesting places for the birds, and
she needs the dark forest so that the wild creatures may find shelter
and a home.

It would be strange if we did not love the trees; for they are not only
useful, but add so much to the beauty of our homes. Our early ancestors
may at times have made their homes in the trees, as some of the wild
people do now. They certainly lived among the trees, for the myth
stories that they have given us speak of the deep, dark forests and of
the mysterious people supposed to inhabit them.

We feel pity for the people who live in treeless deserts. The few
articles of wood which they possess have to be brought a long distance
at great cost. The Eskimos of the frozen North are more helpless than
the desert people, for before the coming of explorers they had no
communication with forested regions. They were not wholly without wood,
however, for the ocean waves occasionally washed pieces upon their
shores.

From the time when the earliest man found a club a better weapon than
his bare fists, wood has been used for an ever-increasing number of
purposes. Wood fires kept the early people warm. Wood was used in making
their bows and spears; bark and pieces of branches served to make their
rude homes.

The inner bark of the cedar and birch was used by the Indians in weaving
baskets and mats. From the inner bark of the birch tree they made canoes
that were so light that they could be carried from one stream to
another. Where there were no birch trees, great cedars were cut or
burned down and made into canoes, for traveling by water was much easier
than over rocky ground or through dense forests. Some tribes of Indians
learned to split the cedar logs into rude boards which they used in
making their houses. The Indians also learned to boil down the sweet sap
of the maple until it turned to sugar.

The eating of nuts and fruits furnished by certain kinds of trees came
a