256 



WOOD AND FOREST. 



of the branches as the flames seize one after the other, leaping from crown 

 to crown, rising high above the tree tops in whirling wreaths of fire, and 

 belching forth clouds of smoke hundreds of feet still higher. As the heated 

 air rises more and more, rushing along with a sound like that of a thousand 

 foaming mountain torrents, burning brands are carried along, whirling on 

 across the firmament like evil spirits of destruction, bearing the fire miles 

 away from its origin, then falling among the dry brush heaps of windfall or 

 slashing, and starting another fire to burn as fiercely as the first. * * * 

 There is something horrible in the slow, steady approach of a top fire. 

 It comes on with the pitiless determination of unavoidable destiny, not 

 faster than a man can walk. But there is no stopping it. You cannot fight 

 a fire that seizes tree top after tree top, far above your reach, and showers 

 down upon the pigmy mortals that attempt to oppose it an avalanch of 

 burning branches, driving them away to escape the torture and death that 

 threatens them. (Bruncken, American Forests and Forestry, 106-109.) 



Fig. 108. Fig-hting- Forest Fire. U. S. Forest Service. 



Real forest fires are not usually put out; men only try to limit 

 them. A common method of limitation is to cut trenches thru the 

 duff so that the fire cannot pass across, Fig. 108. In serious cases 



