of 



Fires make the Rocky Mountains still more 

 rocky. This bald fact stuck out all through this 

 burn and in dozens of others afterward visited. 

 Most Rocky Mountain fires not only skin off 

 the humus but so cut up the fleshy soil and so 

 completely destroy the fibrous bindings that 

 the elements quickly drag much of it from the 

 bones and fling it down into the stream-chan- 

 nels. Down many summit slopes in these moun- 

 tains, where the fires went to bed-rock, the 

 snows and waters still scoot and scour. The fire 

 damage to some of these steep slopes cannot 

 be repaired for generations and even centuries. 

 Meantime these disfigured places will support 

 only a scattered growth of trees and sustain 

 only a sparse population of animals. 



In wandering about I found that the average 

 thickness of humus decayed vegetable mat- 

 ter consumed by this fire was about five 

 inches. The removal of even these few inches 

 of covering had in many places exposed boul- 

 ders and bed-rock. On many shallow-covered 

 steeps the soil-anchoring roots were consumed 

 and the productive heritage of ages was left to 



148 



