LOCATION AND EXTENT OF BURNS. 73 



easterly extensions up the valley of the Oceur d'Alene River we enter 

 upon the classic grounds of the great burns of this region. Through 

 this low, broken, undulating country came the two routes of the mili- 

 tary road constructed by Capt. John Mullan in 1859 and 1802 and in 

 later years a branch line of the Union Pacific Railroad. There has 

 been in consequence no lack of opportunity for the spread of fires, and 

 the region has always been and is yet a grand starting point for the 

 conflagrations which are sure to occur each summer. 



This broken region consists, topographically, of the foothills of the 

 basal ridge of the North Fork basin, the only area of its kind in the 

 Cceur d'Alenes. A line drawn from Rathdrnm, Idaho, to the Old 

 Mission, on the South Fork of the Oceur d'Alene River, would very 

 nearly bisect it. We find here a mingling of the zones of the Yellow 

 and the White Pine— an interlacing of long lobes which extend from 

 the one into the other. Originally the forest was exceedingly dense 

 over the greater portion of this area, and being easy of access it was 

 one of the most valuable parts of the region for lumbering purposes. 

 Hundreds of fires have sadly decimated it during the past twelve or 

 fourteen years. The Yellow IMne has not suffered so extensively, owing 

 to causes already explained, but the abutting and interlacing portions 

 of the White Pine Zone have been frightfully ravaged. From this 

 tract as a central point the fires have spread many kilometers north 

 and south into the adjoining mountains. Excluding all portions to 

 the east of the Old Mission for the present, there is in this tract an 

 area of about 50 kilometers (31 miles) from east to west and as much 

 from north to south upon which Go per cent of the forest has been 

 destroyed by fire. The remaining 33 per cent represents yellow pine 

 principally. As this foothill region is especially liable to conflagra- 

 tions, the inroads of sawmills, and the clearings of settlers, a few years 

 longer will solve the forestry problem here. 



Proceeding up the valley of the South Fork, we come into the center 

 of population of the Coeur d'Alenes. Between the fires and the saw- 

 mills the valley is pretty well cleared of its forest. From the Old 

 Mission to the summit of the Bitter Boots, a distance of 60 kilometers 

 (37 miles), and extending north and south, with an average width of 18 

 kilometers (11 miles), fully 00 per cent of the timber is gone. Com- 

 paratively little of it was utilized; most of it burned up. Much the 

 larger part of the valley is now entirely destitute of sizable timber. 

 What is left we find in the wet canyons, where the abundance of water 

 in the humus has acted as a bar against the spread of the flames. 

 The young growth stands no chance here. As soon as large enough 

 and dense enough to burn it is certain to be fired. 



Coming into the North Fork basin, we go away from the highways 

 of travel and would expect to find a less amount of destruction. It 

 would be so were this tract not surrounded by a series of points whence 

 conflagrations are sure to come each year, everyone eating a little deeper 

 into the forest than did its predecessor, 



