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more rocky. In many places the fires burn their 

 way to solid rock. In other places the humus, or 

 vegetable mould, is partly consumed by fire, and 

 the remainder is in a short time blown away by 

 wind or washed away by water. Fires often leave 

 only blackened granite rock behind, so that in 

 many places they have not only consumed the 

 forests, but also the food upon which the new 

 forests might have fed. Many areas where splen- 

 did forests grew, after being fire-swept, show only 

 barren granite. As some of the granite on the 

 Rockies disintegrates slowly, it will probably re- 

 quire several hundred years for Nature to resoil 

 and reforest some of these fire-scarred places. 

 However, upon thousands of acres of the Rockies 

 millions of young trees are just beginning to 

 grow, and if these trees be protected from fire, 

 a forest will early result. 



I never see a little tree bursting from the earth, 

 peepingconfidently up among the withered leaves, 

 without wondering how long it will live or what 

 trials or triumphs it will have. I always hope that 

 it will find life worth living, and that it will live 

 long to better and to beautify the earth. I hope 



2IO 



