16 TRUE BEAR STORIES. 



tangle of undergrowth and a mass of fallen 

 timber. What a feast for flames! In one 

 of the very old books on America in the 

 British Museum possibly the very oldest 

 on the subject the author tells of the 

 park-like appearance of the American for- 

 ests. He tells his English friends back at 

 home that it is most comfortable to ride 

 to the hounds, "since the Indian squats 

 (squaws) do set fire to the brush and leaves 

 every spring," etc. 



But the "squats" had long since disap- 

 peared from the forests of Mount Shasta; 

 and here we were tumbling over and tear- 

 ing through ten years' or more of accumu- 

 lation of logs, brush, leaves, weeds and 

 grass that lay waiting for a sea of fire to 

 roll over all like a mass of lava. 



And now the wind blew past and over 

 us. Bits of white ashes sifted down like 

 snow. Surely the sea of fire was coming, 

 coming right on after us! Still there was 

 no sign, save this little sift of ashes, no 

 sound; nothing at all except the trained 



