of 



white, when fringed with the gentian's blue, 

 and while decked with the pond-lily's yellow 

 glory. 



Ruin befell it before my first visit ended. 

 One morning, while watching from the boulder- 

 pile, I noticed an occasional flake of ash drop- 

 ping into the pond. Soon smoke scented the air, 

 then came the awful and subdued roar of a 

 forest fire. I fled, and from above the timber- 

 line watched the storm-cloud of black smoke 

 sweep furiously forward, bursting and closing 

 to the terrible leaps of red and tattered flames. 

 Before noon several thousand acres of forest 

 were dead, all leaves and twigs were in ashes, 

 all tree- trunks blistered and blackened. 



The Moraine Colony was closely embowered 

 in a pitchy forest. For a time the houses in the 

 water must have been wrapped in flames of 

 smelter heat. Could these mud houses stand 

 this? The beavers themselves I knew would 

 escape by sinking under the water. Next morn- 

 ing I went through the hot, smoky area and found 

 every house cracked and crumbling; not one 

 was inhabitable. Most serious of all was the 



26 



