An English Prairie- Fire. 139. 



but a charred stump be left. Now and then there is 

 sufficient sap yet remaining in the bark and outer ring 

 of wood to check the fire when it reaches it ; and 

 finally it dies out, being unable to burn the green 

 casing of the trunk. Even then, so strong is the vital 

 force, the oak may stand for years and put forth 

 leaves on its branches — leaves which, when dead, will 

 linger, loth to fall, almost through the winter, rustling 

 in the wind, till the buds of spring push them off. 



Graver mischief is sometimes committed with the 

 lucifer match, and with more of the set purpose of 

 destruction. In the vast expanse of furze outside the 

 wood on the high ground the huntsmen are almost 

 certain of a find, and, if they can get between the 

 fox and the wood, of a rattling burst along the edge 

 of the downs ; no wonder, therefore, that both they 

 and the keeper set store by this breadth of ' bush. ' 

 To this great covert more than once some skulking 

 scoundrel has set fire, taking good care to strike his 

 match well to windward, so that the flames might 

 drive across the whole, and to chose a wind which 

 would also endanger the wood. Now nothing flares 

 up with such a sudden fierceness as furze, and there is 

 no possibility of stopping it. With a loud crackling, 

 and swaying of pointed tongues of flame visible miles 

 away even at noontide, and a cloud of smoke, the rift 



