no matter how swift the wind ally; but men were 

 not then defending our forests and an ill wind 

 was blowing. 



Many factors help to determine the speed of 

 these fires, and a number of observations showed 

 that under average conditions a fire burned 

 down a slope at about one mile an hour; on the 

 level it traveled from two to eight miles an hour, 

 while up a slope it made from eight to twelve. 

 For short distances fires occasionally roared 

 along at a speed of fifty or sixty miles an hour 

 and made a terrible gale of flames. 



I hurried up into the alpine realm and after 

 half an hour scaled a promontory and looked 

 back to the pass. A great cloud of smoke was 

 streaming up just beyond and after a minute 

 tattered sheets of flame were shooting high 

 above it. Presently a tornado of smoke and 

 flame surged into the pass and for some seconds 

 nothing could be seen. As this cleared, a suc- 

 cession of tongues and sheets of flame tried to 

 reach over into the forest on the other side of 

 the pass, but finally gave it up. Just as I was 

 beginning to feel that the forest around me was 



167 



