of slow-burning bark. The Western yellow pine 

 is one of the best fire-fighters in the forest world. 

 Its vitals appear able to endure unusual heat 

 without death, and it will survive fires that kill 

 neighboring trees of other kinds. In old trees 

 the trunk and large limbs are thickly covered 

 with heat-and-fire-resisting bark. In examining 

 a number of these old fellows that were at last 

 laid low by snow or landslide or the axe, I found 

 that some had triumphantly survived a num- 

 ber of fiery ordeals and two or three lightning- 

 strokes. One pine of eight centuries carried the 

 scars of four thunderbolts and seven wounds 

 that were received from fires decades apart. 



The deciduous, or broad-leaf, trees resist 

 fires better than the coniferous, or evergreen, 

 trees. Pines and spruces take fire much more 

 readily than oaks and maples, because of the 

 resinous sap that circulates through them; 

 moreover, the pines and spruces when heated 

 give off an inflammable gas which, rising in front 

 of a forest fire, adds to the heat and destruc- 

 tiveness, and the eagerness of the blaze. Con- 

 sidered in relation to a fire, the coniferous forest 



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