156 PRINCIPLES OF AMERICAN FORESTRY. 



property to the amount of many millions of dollars was 

 destroyed. 



Very serious fires have occurred in Michigan from time 

 to time, in one of which, in about 1871, a strip of territory 

 forty miles wide and 180 miles long, extending across 

 the central part of the State from Lake Michigan to Lake 

 Huron, was devastated. More than ten million dollars' 

 worth of timber was burned, and several hundred persons 

 perished. 



The Hinckley Fire occurred Sept. 1, 1894, and was 

 the most destructive fire of recent years. Hinckley, 

 Minnesota, and several other towns were destroyed, about 

 500 lives were lost, and more than 2,000 persons were 

 left destitute. It is estimated that the loss in property 

 amounted to about $25,000,000. The loss of life from 

 this fire would have been much more than stated had it 

 not been for the fact that the railroad companies ran 

 special trains to carry the settlers away from the flames. 

 This fire was wholly unnecessary, and could easily have 

 been put out in its earlier stages. For two weeks previous 

 to the breaking out of this fire into an uncontrollable 

 mass of flame, small fires had been raging in swamps about 

 Hinckley, and filled the town with dense smoke, and it 

 was only when these became united under the direction 

 of a hot south wind that it passed beyond control. Had 

 the present forest-fire law of Minnesota been in force at 

 that time this fire would undoubtedly have been pre- 

 vented. 



Sand-Dunes. In places in various parts of this country, 

 notably along portions of the seashore and along the shores 

 of the Great Lakes, there are quite considerable sand- 

 dunes. By this is meant the drifting sands which are 

 easily blown about after the vegetation, which has held 

 them in place, has been broken. Along the shore of 

 New Jersey, at Seven Mile Beach, there is a dune which 



