Bulletin (Pennsylvania Department of Forests and Waters), no. 35 (1923) (19878286204)

Title: Bulletin (Pennsylvania Department of Forests and Waters), no. 35
Identifier: bulletinpennsylv35penn (find matches)
Year: 1923 (1920s)
Authors: Pennsylvania. Dept. of Forests and Waters
Subjects: Forests and forestry
Publisher: Harrisburg, Pa. : The Department
Contributing Library: Penn State University
Digitizing Sponsor: Lyrasis Members and Sloan Foundation

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X 5 'A < X y. y. y. V. X-. LKSSON NINE A FOREST FIKK* Loiij.' befoiT 1 rcHclied the fire I could feel the heat in the air could see the rollmo: siuokc waves on liicrh, and could hear the crackle and the crashin- and the crunching of fallincr tree-trunks. Birds in a armed flight wino-ed ahead of the danger. Small game, squirrels clnpmunks, rabbits, and groundhogs, were getting out of the way and were heedless of man. There was an even increased activitv and excite- ment among the bugs. I never saw such swarms of Cand')erwell beau- ties banded purples, angle-wings, .swallow-tails, tortoise-shell, and dog-taced .sulphurs. Deer clung to the shores, readv to take to the water. Bradshaw rei)orted a big bull moose hangin«'- out with his cattle, as if sensing comparative safetv near to man. The fire caindit a lot of pestiferous army worms and (lestroved no end of vermin in'^its course. The fighters had brains and willingness and courage and resource l)ut we had notliing to fight tlie fire with. There wasn't a drop of water nearer than the shore. The main fire front was over two miles long It would take an ocean to coikhkm- it. The trail was rockv \Ve had shovels, ))icks, hoes, rakes, and axes. We could not "ct *a shovelful of non-combustible soil. All we could do was to whip a"t the fire with bundles of green withes. Bradshaw said that it would not run through a certain big green alder swamp, wliich would help check It. When the fire reached those alders, theiv was a his.sing of a million serpents' tcmgues, and then a frying, sizzling sound as of the broilin^ ol countless earth demons, and the alder swam)) became blackish ashes on the ground. On came the fii-e. It consumed every particle of the covering of the rocky land, leaving it as bare, exccj^'for ashes, as when it left the bosom of the glacier that bore it. When it got to the trail, we could only make a brief resistance, that was morel'utile than the prattle of babies. Then we had to run for it or roast Lon'*- before the ground fire got to the trail the aerial of flames and cinders had passed over us, igniting the fore.st beyond. There was nothinci" to do but pray, and there was a mighty lot of i)raying. The Indians said if Chief ^lendoskong were alive and White Loon, the medicine man, was not dead they would make it rain. Even Oreensky, who had been a famous rainmaker, had gone to the land of crippled deer and tame beaver. There was no ho))e. Only one thing can prevent forests fires: education of the people to a point where they can a;)preciate the danger and will ))ractice adecpiate care. 1 have known careful woodsmcMi to .start a tea fire on a rock shore covered with fibrous roots and dusty ligneous sub- stance and use plenty of water in an attempt to put it out before they proceeded. But the fire had eaten its way inch by inch between rock and soil where it was hidden and where the water did not reach it, only to burn through later and destroy miles of growth. So one must be very, very careful where he builds a fii-e in a drv time and more careful still about ))utting it out. "When forests fires reach their maximum, they are more than ter- rible in their fury. The very air seems-afii-e. Thei-e are those who believe that the air decomposes at a certain heat and that the gases ignite, forming an atmosphere of Ii(;uid flames, (n the Peshtigo fire •By Chas. S. Osborn. With permission of "The Outlook." 23 INTENTIONAL SECOND EXPOSURE

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