586 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



THE LESSON OF THE FOREST FIRES. 



By BELA HUBBAED, LL. D. 



YO YAGERS on the upper lakes in August last were involyed 

 in clouds of smoke which settled over the waters. These 

 were often so dense as to render navigation dangerous and to 

 occasion frequent collisions. They obscured the sun, which ap- 

 peared a dull red ball in the sky. This smoke extended as far 

 east as the Atlantic and south to Georgia. The cause was soon 

 apparent : forest fires were raging in the lands about the lakes. 



By these fires in lower Michigan property to the extent of 

 thousands of dollars was destroyed ; in the Upper Peninsula the 

 burned area is reported at over one thousand square miles. 



But these devastations were insignificant compared with those 

 in Wisconsin and Minnesota, in each of which States the losses 

 amount to many millions of dollars. In Wisconsin the areas 

 burned over ranged from fifty to one hundred and forty miles 

 in extent. Individual lumbermen lost in standing pine from ten 

 thousand to five hundred thousand dollars. All this was accom- 

 panied with the destruction of entire villages and crops as well as 

 great loss of human life. A witness reports, " The bodies which 

 dot the heated and black expanse give the scene the appearance 

 of a battlefield." 



From Minnesota the news is even more appalling. Between 

 Pine City and Carleton, a distance of one hundred and thirty 

 miles, whole towns were swept out of existence. In one alone, 

 Hinckley, at least two hundred people perished. Nineteen vil- 

 lages are wholly or partially destroyed, and many million feet of 

 lumber. It is fairly computed that in this State alone five thou- 

 sand square miles in area have been thus devastated. Minnesota 

 contains about seventy thousand square miles ; supposing two 

 thirds of this area to be timbered land, one may count on the 

 fingers of his two hands how many years of such devastation will 

 deprive this State of every vestige of its timber. 



Terrible as has been the destruction from forest fires in 1894, 

 the phenomena to which it has borne witness have been by no 

 means unprecedented in our history during the last half cen- 

 tury. I will recall those of a single year only. 



The present generation can not have forgotten the year 1871, 

 made memorable by the great fire in Chicago, preceded by forest 

 fires in Wisconsin and Minnesota and followed by similar fires in 

 Michigan. From July to November, a period of five months, the 

 rainfall in the latter State did not exceed six inches, and the entire 

 precipitation of the year was only two thirds the normal amount. 

 Early in October disastrous fires overspread portions of Wisconsin 



