Conservation Reader Part 14

If we cannot use coal without wasting so much, would it not be wiser for us to turn our attention more fully to the sources of power in the streams which are flowing down all our mountain sides? The use of this power when turned into electricity would enable us to save a large part of the coal, oil, and gas that are now used, and so make them last longer.

It is far easier to waste oil and gas than coal, for, when we have drilled holes in the earth, unless we are very careful the gas will escape into the air and the oil will become mixed with water, so that it will be difficult for us to get it.

Oil and gas are confined under great pressure hundreds and often thousands of feet below the surface. To make clear how easy it is to waste them, we might compare them to the compressed air in an automobile tire. If the tire is punctured by a nail, the air issues suddenly with a sharp, whistling sound until the pressure inside is gone and no more will come out.

For many years we have been puncturing the crust of the earth, where oil has been discovered, and letting the oil and gas escape. We have saved most of the oil, but nearly all the gas has been wasted. The gas will finally stop coming out when the pressure is gone, just as the air did in the automobile tire.

On the opposite page is a picture of a "gusher" in the Sunset oil field, California, which tells the story of how we are permitting the valuable substances within the earth to be wasted. In drilling this well the oil men suddenly struck a deposit of oil and gas under great pressure. The drilling tools were blown out of the well and a column of oil and gas shot up 150 feet. For a time the well flowed forty thousand barrels of oil each day, and an unknown quant.i.ty of gas. Much of the oil was scattered around the surrounding country, and all the gas was lost. Men worked for weeks making reservoirs of earth in an attempt to save the river of oil.

Another well a few miles distant struck an enormous quant.i.ty of gas. It blew off for days with a roar like that of the steam from a giant engine. Then it took fire, and the column of flame at night was a fearful sight. There was gas enough lost from this one well to light a city for months.

Gas has been escaping during many years from hundreds of wells in the Pennsylvania, Ohio Valley, Oklahoma, Texas, and California oil fields.

The gas from all these wells together has been estimated to be equal in value to a river of oil flowing several hundred thousand barrels each day. In many districts the gas was nearly gone before people discovered its great value. It is impossible for us to realize the waste which this represents.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Myrl's Studio, Bakersfield, California_ A "gusher" in a California oil field wasting great quant.i.ties of oil and gas.]

It has taken Nature a long time to make the oil and gas which we are losing. When she began this work, the oil regions which have been mentioned were beneath the sea. In its waters lived countless numbers of minute organisms, as well as fish of many kinds. As they died, their bodies acc.u.mulated in beds which finally became thousands of feet thick.

Then the currents of the water changed and sand and mud were washed over these beds, burying them deeply.

Finally the bottom of the sea was lifted and became dry land. The movement squeezed and folded the rocky layers made of the skeletons of the animals and plants. The soft parts of their bodies held in these rocky layers produced a greenish or brownish oil and gas. The gas tried to escape from the rocks, for they were hot and it wanted more room. In some places it found openings through the rocks and escaped to the surface, usually bringing some of the oil with it. The gas was lost, but a part of the oil remained, forming deposits of tar. In other places the oil and gas could not reach the surface, but found porous, sandy rocks into which they went and remained until the oil driller found them.

The tar springs, or "seepages," indicate to the oil prospector where deposits of oil may possibly be found. He examines the country about and, selecting a favorable place, drills a well. If he is successful, he will strike oil-bearing rocks. The oil may be a few hundred feet below the surface, or it may be a mile below. In the latter case it takes months to drill the well.

If a robber came and attempted to take by force the coal, oil, and gas which we are daily losing through our carelessness and indifference, even though he might put it to better use than we put it, there would at once go up a great cry. We would raise an army and fight for our property, and perhaps suffer great loss in defending it. But, day by day, without making any serious objection, we are letting these natural resources go to waste.

Perhaps in some far distant future, after we have used up the stores of fuel in the earth, we may discover something to take its place; but wise and thoughtful people should make the most of what they have.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

NEED FOR PROTECTION OF CREATURES THAT LIVE IN THE WATER

Perhaps you think it is absurd to talk about caring for the creatures that live in the water, since they can so easily hide away in its depths where we cannot follow. Perhaps you think that because the ocean is so great it would be impossible ever to catch all the fish that live in it.

It is easy to understand how all the fish might be caught out of the creeks, rivers, and shallow lakes, since fish are hungry and we put before them such attractive bait; but with the ocean it seems different.

It stretches so many thousands of miles and is so very deep that there does not appear to be any danger of exterminating the animals of the ocean as we have some of those of the land.

Is it true, however, that all the vast waters of the ocean are full of fish, or are they found only in certain parts? The fishermen can tell us about this matter. They know where to set the hooks and nets, and where they are most likely to get a good catch. They do not go far out where the water is deep but seek, instead, the shallow waters near the sh.o.r.e or about the reefs and islands. They know that the deep water of the ocean contains very few fish and none that are of any value as food.

Each kind of fish has become adapted to certain parts of the ocean, for both the food supply and the pressure of the water differ with different depths. Fish caught in deep water are often dead before reaching the surface, because of the decrease in the water pressure.

One reason why fish are not numerous far out in the ocean is because there is little food to be had there. The reason no fish are found in the very deep parts of the ocean is because the water there contains no air particles. Strange as it may seem, although fish breathe water, they cannot live unless it contains oxygen from the air.

The fish, then, that interest us because of their value for food, are found only in the shallow waters usually near the sh.o.r.e and in the lakes and rivers. Because of this fact it is possible, as we have learned from experience, to set so many traps and use so many nets and hooks as entirely to destroy certain species.

The fish have their natural enemies, and there is warfare among them just as there is among the land animals. The larger and more powerful live upon the smaller ones, but, seemingly to make up for this, Nature has given the small fish quickness of movement--which the large fish do not possess--to aid them in escaping. They have also the power of increasing very rapidly. The little herring, which is the chief food of many of the large fish, maintains its countless numbers against all its enemies except the fishermen.

The Indians, with their crude traps, hooks, and spears, could obtain but few fish at a time and did not reduce their numbers. But civilized man, with his cunningly contrived hooks and nets, has the same advantage over the fish that the hunter, with his repeating gun, has over the land animals. Nature, not foreseeing how destructive man would be, has armed neither the creatures of the land nor the creatures of the water against him.

The fisherman does his work just as thoughtlessly as the hunter whose business it is to supply the market. He seems to think no more about the effect upon next season's supply, of his stretching a net across a river and catching all the fish going up to sp.a.w.n, than does the market hunter who would, if he could, shoot the last duck. Is it not strange that many fishermen will do anything in their power to evade the laws governing the catching of fish when by doing so they injure their own business?

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Edward S. Curtis_ A rocky island in the Pacific Ocean, used by seals as a sunning place.]

We have already nearly destroyed the mammals that live in the ocean.

Among them are the whales, which were once numerous in the arctic regions. Few whaling ships now arrive with profitable cargoes of oil or whalebone. The sea otter, the fur of which is more highly prized than that of any other animal, and the walrus, valuable for its oil, are also nearly extinct.

No more cruel hunting was ever carried on than was that of the seal mothers in the open ocean where they go in search of food. When the mothers are killed the young ones, left in the rookeries upon the Pribilof Islands, soon die of starvation. The fur seal has thus been so reduced in numbers that it was threatened with extinction. Now Russia, j.a.pan, England, and the United States have agreed to stop all killing of the fur seal for a number of years.

As a result of the great demand for fish, and the careless methods used by the thousands of men engaged in catching them, Nature unaided cannot keep up the supply. For the purpose of a.s.sisting her, strict laws have been pa.s.sed in many states. These laws prohibit fishermen from stretching their nets or weirs across the streams so as to block the pa.s.sage of the fish when going to their sp.a.w.ning grounds. They also prohibit the taking of undersized fish and in some cases allow none at all of some kinds to be taken for a given time. Our government is now doing a great deal to save the food fishes of the country, but some varieties are still decreasing.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _H. W. Fairbanks_ An Indian fish trap.]

The little herring is the most valuable of all the sea fish. Enormous numbers are captured in nets, and still greater numbers form the food of other fish. The herring has so many enemies that it must increase rapidly in order to hold its place in the sea. Nature has arranged that this fish should produce twenty thousand or more eggs at each sp.a.w.ning season. It is thought that if only two eggs out of this great number hatch and grow up, the supply of herring will be maintained. This estimate does not, however, take into account the present terrible waste of herring in the Chesapeake and other bays on the Atlantic coast, where it is taken in nets and used for making land fertilizer. Is it any wonder that the herring is now decreasing in numbers?

The oyster was once hunted so closely that it would have disappeared from our coast waters if the young had not been taken and raised artificially. Is it not interesting to know that we plant young oysters on oyster farms, and raise oyster crops, all below the level of high tide? The greatest oyster farms in the world are upon Chesapeake Bay.

There are also oyster farms in other bays upon the Atlantic seaboard, and lately the oyster has been transplanted to the bays upon the Pacific Coast.

The lobster was trapped so industriously that it also began to grow scarce. Finally the government took up the matter of protecting it. The eggs and the young were guarded, and now it is increasing in numbers.

Once the sturgeon was very plentiful in the lakes and rivers of our country. For a long time it was thought to be of no value and was thrown away when caught in nets set for other fish. Then it was discovered that its flesh was delicious, and its eggs, known as _caviar_, became a very fashionable dish. After this there followed a period of most destructive fishing, and now sturgeon are quite scarce and high priced.

Herring, shad, and salmon are migratory fish. By this we mean that they spend a part of their lives in the ocean but enter the bays and streams at the sp.a.w.ning season. You can readily understand that if the bays are blocked with nets the fish cannot reach the sp.a.w.ning grounds and their numbers must decrease. Chesapeake Bay contains such a maze of nets, many of them extending out ten miles from the sh.o.r.e, that it is a wonder that any fish get past them.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _H. W. Fairbanks_ A fish wheel on the Columbia River, in which salmon are caught on their way to the sp.a.w.ning grounds.]

The waters of New England were once filled with striped ba.s.s, smelt, salmon, and shad, but now these fish are almost gone. The shad are rapidly decreasing all along the Atlantic Coast. The nets in Lake Erie extend out sometimes ten miles from sh.o.r.e, and the whitefish as well as the sturgeon have been greatly reduced in numbers there.

When the Pacific Coast was first settled, the "salmon run" in the Sacramento, Columbia, and other rivers was a wonderful sight. The waters were fairly alive with these huge fish. Hydraulic mining so muddied the waters of the Sacramento that their numbers greatly decreased. Then came the fishermen and stretched their nets across the rivers, so nearly blocking the channels that the salmon were rarely seen on their old sp.a.w.ning grounds. Now salmon fishing is carefully regulated and salmon are increasing.

The shallow waters of San Francis...o...b..y, the ocean for some miles out from sh.o.r.e, and the waters about the islands of Southern California form very valuable fishing grounds, which, if they are taken care of, will furnish much larger supplies of fish than are now obtained.

The interesting discovery has been made that the waters around the islands of Santa Catalina and San Clemente form important sp.a.w.ning grounds for many food fish, including the great tuna. These waters were fished so destructively that many of the fish were found to be decreasing. This has led to the establishment of a fish preserve for three miles about Santa Catalina Island. Within this area no fish are allowed to be taken except with a hook and line. Some of the most valuable fish, which were almost gone, are now becoming more numerous.

The fact that the fish stay close about the island where the water is shallow makes the establishment of the preserve possible.

The salmon and halibut fisheries of the Alaskan waters have long been the source of much profit. This region, owing to the many bays and islands, fairly swarms with fish of many kinds. Protection will soon be needed here if this great storehouse of fish is to be kept filled.

The cod fisheries of the Newfoundland banks are among the most valuable in the world, and are almost the only ones where fishing has long been carried on and where the supply is not decreasing. The "banks" are formed by a great flat reef four hundred miles long, over which the water is shallow enough to offer a fine home for cod.

Hatcheries have been established in many parts of our country for the purpose of collecting and hatching fish eggs. These are used for restocking those waters that have been fished out. After the eggs have hatched and the young fish have reached a certain stage, they are shipped to the streams where they are needed. The United States fishery on the McCloud River, California, has distributed rainbow trout all over the United States. Shad and striped ba.s.s have been brought from Eastern fisheries and planted in Pacific Coast waters, where they are now rapidly increasing.

Thus we learn that valuable food fish live within certain narrow bounds instead of being distributed all through the waters of the globe. It is as easy, with our many ingenious devices of net and weir, to destroy the inhabitants of the water as it is to destroy those of the land with guns.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX