gyttt of tfy (gocftte* 



other earthy wreckage, and some of the stones 

 were as large as a man's hat. Now and then 

 there was a slackening, but these momentary 

 subsidences were followed by explosive out- 

 pourings with which mingled large pieces of 

 charred or half-decayed wood, sometimes closely 

 pursued by a small boulder or some rock-frag- 

 ments. Surely, these deforested slopes were 

 heavy contributors to the millions of tons of 

 undesirable matter that annually went in to 

 fill the channel and vex the current of the Mis- 

 sissippi ! 



These demonstrations brought to mind a re- 

 mark of an army engineer to the effect that the 

 "Western forest fires had resulted in filling the 

 Missouri River channel full of dissolved Rocky 

 Mountains." The action of the water on this 

 single burned area suggested that ten thousand 

 other fireswept heights must be rapidly dimin- 

 ishing. At all events, it is evident that, unless 

 this erosion is stopped, boats before long will 

 hardly find room to enter the Mississippi. It 

 now became easier to account for the mud-filled 

 channel of the great river, and also for the in- 



284 



