(Ruinefc Cofong 



sand acres of forest were dead, all leaves and 

 twigs were in ashes, all tree-trunks blistered and 

 blackened. 



The Moraine Colony was closely embowered 

 in a pitchy forest. For a time the houses in the 

 water must have been wrapped in flames of 

 smelter heat. Could these mud houses stand this ? 

 The beavers themselves I knew would escape by 

 sinking under the water. Next morning I went 

 through the hot, smoky area and found every 

 house cracked and crumbling ; not one was in- 

 habitable. Most serious of all was the total loss 

 of the uncut food-supply, when harvesting for 

 winter had only begun. 



Would these energetic people starve at home 

 or would they try to find refuge in some other 

 colony ? Would they endeavor to find a grove 

 that the fire had missed and there start anew ? 

 The intense heat had consumed almost every 

 fibrous thing above the surface. The piles of 

 garnered green aspen were charred to the water- 

 line ; all that remained of willow thickets and 

 aspen groves were thousands of blackened pickets 

 and points, acres of coarse charcoal stubble. It 



