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14
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MEXICAN GULF COAST ILLUSTRATED.
efforts are brought to bear in the development of these important and fortunate deposits, which constitute one of the most profitable factors of natural wealth.	*
From several sources the writer has been informed that much of the beautiful white sand which abounds od the coast, has been pronounced available for the manufacture of glass. It is a matter of some regret that definite information of this subject pertaining to coast sands, hjy not been available, though efforts have been made to obtain it. But fr m an eminent and reliable source (Prof. Hilgard) it has been found that Pearl River and its tributaries in Mississippi, furnish drifts of white sand that often vie in purity with those of St. Genevieve in Missouri whence the Pittsburgh glass works receive a large part of their supply. Pearl river is the boundary line between Mississippi and Louisiana; its waters reach the sea through Mississippi Sound. Here, also, is an opportunity for developing an industry of very great importance to the Coast.
Elsewhere in these pages the magnitude and importance of the timber resources of the pine region, in some degree at least, are considered. They constitute a source of natural wealth which can hardly be computed. It is not necessary here to iterate what will be found further on. In this connection, however, one thought is suggested which at this point is pertinent. ^ In contemplating these superb forests, standing upon thousands of acres iu'their primeval grandeur, the result of several hundred years of growth— and recollecting the wanton destruction .of thousands of acres of similar growths of the most valuable hardwood forests in some of the northern States, which long since, in great part, were ruthlessly destroyed within the recollection and knowledge of the writer, a feeling with a tinge of sadness in it, is irresistible. Here are natural growths of one of the most valuable species of wood on the face of tbe globe. The axe and the saw are depleting them by millions upon millions of feet every year, and in a constant^' increasing ratio. No provision is being made as a compensation for this enormous destruction. It is, however, a comforting thought that the new Secretary of Agriculture at AVashington, Hon. J. Stirling Morton, is a man who has given the subject of Forestry special attention for many years. He is, in fact, the originator of Arbor Day in the Northwest, and to him more than any other man is due the planting of thousands of acres of forest trees in the comparatively treeless regions of most of the Western States. It is more than probable that forestry— timber physics, and the conservation of the pine forests of the South—will receive at his hands the attention it deserves.