FOREST LIFE PERIL. 35 



crops, and the homestead itself, of the struggling emi- 

 grant, who is too happy if he and his little ones can only 

 escape with their lives. Fire is the best remedy for 

 fires of this kind. That sounds odd enough. In the city, 

 if we catch fire, we run post haste for the " engine," and 

 should 'think any one mad who prescribed fire instead of 

 water. But the meaning of it is, that the most effectual 

 way of checking the flames in these forest and bush 

 fires is, to set fire to the grass and brushwood, sufficiently 

 in advance of the great fire that is to be extinguished, 

 to allow them to be burnt out, before the wave of flame 

 comes up to the place. If this can be managed, it re- 

 quires much care and adroitness, the original fire, of 

 course, goes out for want of fuel, and there is an end of 

 it. But too frequently the intensity of the conflagra- 

 tion baffles all attempts to stop it. In the hot season, 

 dead trees, broken branches, and decaying underwood, 

 are dry as tinder ; the resin and pitch, in such trees as 

 the fir, give unconquerable fury to the flames, while the 

 violent wind, which is the natural result of a vast body 

 of intense heat, fans the whole into still stronger com- 

 bustion. A fire of this kind that took place in one of 

 the English possessions in North America, in 1825, 

 burnt on for the astounding distance of a hundred and 

 forty miles, and on both sides of a large river. On one 

 bank alone, a breadth of more than sixty miles was ra- 

 vaged by it. 



It appears that for several days previously the woods 

 had been on fire ; but this being no infrequent thing, 

 did not produce any alarm. Suddenly, however, a 

 storm of wind arose, accompanied by so extraordinary a 



