FIRE AS AN AGENT IN HUMAN CULTURE 5 



IGNITION IN NATURE 



Natural ignitions may be divided into volcanic, chemical, electrical, 

 frictional due to earth movements, and frictional on wood. Dioptric 

 ignitions, which are observed in the mechanical ages in connection 

 with glass, would be of the rarest occurrence in nature. Stories as to 

 fortuitous solar ignition through ice must be received with incre- 

 dulity. 



The widespread volcanic activity following certain well-defined 

 belts and areas could furnish the major source of fire for man. The 

 attendant phenomena, such as the burning of forests, beds of cooling 

 lava, hot springs, etc., might well have been within the experience of 

 early -man. When the place of origin of man shall be fixed more 

 definitely conclusions will be possible on this subject. At earUer 

 periods within the assigned stage of man volcanic activity was more 

 prevalent than in later periods. 



Chemical ignitions in nature have frequently been recorded, and in 

 a majority of cases connected with veins of coal spontaneously fired. 

 Veins of < oal having an excess mineral content are more subject to 

 ignition than purer veins. The cause of ignition appears to be the 

 decomposition of pyrites forming sulphates in the presence of loosely 

 aggi'egated carbon. Spontaneous combustion of coal dust in piles or 

 bins is not explained, but may be due to the occlusion of gases, as in 

 spongy platinum. The rising of the fire in the ground-off charred 

 dust, which is a feature of the fire drill, seems to have such explana- 

 tion. Smouldering seams of brown coal have been observed in New 

 Zealand. ^2 Beds of hgnite along the banks of the Mackenzie River 

 a few miles above Bear River have been burning for a long time, and 

 the natives explain the origin of this fire by the tale of Beaver who 

 emptied a dish of grease on his fire and told it to burn and never go 

 out.*^ Carl Bock writes that near Long Wai, Borneo, there is a burn- 

 ing hill that is a coal formation on fire, and has been so since the 

 memory of man.^* One of the seams of coal in Monongalia County, 

 West Virginia, is subject to "burn outs," which have occurred at some 

 former time and have become naturally extinguished. It is fre- 

 quently asserted that such coal burnings were started by Ughtning, 

 and it is also suggested that Indian camp fires on the outcrop is a 

 cause, but there is httle evidence in the locality mentioned to sub- 

 stantiate these explanations. Pallas recounts such a fire so occurring 

 in trans- Ural Russia: 



"Many persons then living remembered the storm during which 

 a thunderbolt fell upon a great pine tree, which, taking fire and 



" Julius Haas. Moas and Moa Hunters. (Baird pamphlets in Smithsonian Library.) 

 " Frank Russell. Athabascan Myths, Journ. Amer. Folk Lore, vol. 13, No. 48, Januar>'-March, 

 1900, p. 16. 

 J« Head Hunters of Borneo, p. 84. 



