HISTORY OF BURNING 217 



the California bigtrees, of fires in the eighteenth, sixteenth, and 

 fifteenth centuries, and it also appears that terrific fires occurred 

 there as early as 245 A.D. Occasionally fires originated from 

 falling meteors; many were set by lightning; and in the early 

 days a vast number were started by the Indians, who burned 

 extensive prairie and forest lands before the country was settled 



(Forest Service.) 

 Fig. 71. — a woodland PASTURE FIRE IN NORTHEASTERN OREGON. 

 The whole landscape was covered with white clouds of smoke. 



by the white men.^ The chief object of the practice appears 

 to have been to bring about a fresh growth of grass in the autumn 

 upon which numerous game animals and wild fowl would gather 

 for feed, thus making it easy for the Indians to secure their 

 winter's meat supply. Fires were also set for the purpose of 

 killing and roasting for food the great quantities of grasshoppers 

 that nearly every year feasted on the tender growth of grass. 

 Cabeza de Vaca- states that in Arkansas about 1535 "they 



1 Sampson, Arthur W., "Concerning Forest Fires." Breeder's Gazette, Sept. 

 13, 1911, pp. 429, 430. 



'■ Narrative of Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, "Naufragios, peregrinaciones y 

 milagros," translated by B. Smith, p. 64, 1851. 



