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standing dead trees were just beginning to burn 

 freely. That night these scattered beacons 

 strangely burned among the multitudinous 

 dead. Close to my camp all through that night 

 several of these fire columns showered sparks 

 like a fountain, glowed and occasionally lighted 

 up the scene with flaming torches. Weird and 

 strange in the night were the groups of silhou- 

 etted figures in a shadow-dance between me and 

 the flickering, heroic torches. 



The greater part of the area burned over con- 

 sisted of mountain-slopes and ridges that lay 

 between the altitudes of nine thousand and 

 eleven thousand feet. The forest was made up 

 almost entirely of Engelmann and Douglas 

 spruces, alpine fir, and flexilis pine. A majority 

 of these trees were from fifteen to twenty-four 

 inches in diameter, and those examined were 

 two hundred and fourteen years of age. Over 

 the greater extent of the burn the trees were tall 

 and crowded, about two thousand to the acre. 

 As the fire swept over about eighteen thousand 

 acres, the number of trees that perished must 

 have approximated thirty-six million. 



147 



