44 INJURY BY SMELTER WASTES. 



Very few marks of this fire were seen on the eastern slope. On a very 

 small area at the southern end of the western slope a fire occurred 

 about eighteen years before the date of inspection, and part of the 

 northern slope was attacked by a fire approximately forty years ago. 

 Many of the trees on the northern slope had absolutely no fire scars 

 and yet were dying in the same way as those on other parts of 

 the mountain. At several points there were very small areas where 

 camp fires had been built recently, but in no case were more than 

 five or six trees attacked by such fires. Wherever lodgepole pines 

 occurred on this mountain they were in excellent condition, but the 

 red and balsam firs were practically all dead or dying. The same 

 course of reasoning as that adopted in the previous case proves that 

 these red firs were injured and killed not by fire, but by some cause 

 that was still active during the summer of 1908. 



A trip was made up Storm Lake Canyon to within about a mile of 

 Storm Lake, the farthest point reached being about 17 miles from 

 the smelter. On the eastern side of the creek the slope was mainly 

 covered with lodgepole pines and a few red firs, and no damage was 

 noted except to the latter. On the western slope of the creek there 

 were many red firs, and those were badly injured, some being dead and 

 some dying. There were no signs of recent forest fires to account for 

 this injury. The west slope was examined for only about 2 miles up 

 the canyon, but throughout this area the injury to red fir continued. 

 In the bottom of the canyon the trees at the entrance were mainly 

 balsam firs and lodgepole pines; farther on white pines and spruce 

 began to appear. No injury to any of these trees was noted, except 

 that for 4 or 5 miles up the canyon the balsam firs were badly killed 

 and injured; beyond this distance they appeared to be healthy. 

 There were no fire signs to account for the death and injury of these 

 trees. k 



Another trip was made from Anaconda up Warm Springs Creek to 

 Silver Lake and then to Georgetown Lake, the farthest point reached 

 being about 18 or 19 miles from the smelter. Injur}^ to junipers 

 was not observed at any point. The lodgepole pines were killed in 

 the vicinity of the smelter, but the injury gradually grew less and 

 apparently ceased at a distance of about 10 miles west of it. The in- 

 jury to this species of trees extended about the same distance from the 

 smelter as it had done two years before, in 1906, while the red firs in 

 1908 were injured for about 3 miles farther from the smelter than 

 they were at the previous inspection. Extreme injury to this species 

 of trees was noted all the way to Silver Lake, about 15 miles from the 

 smelter, and considerable injury from Silver Lake to the vicinity of 

 Georgetown Lake. The southern side of Silver Lake had been visited 

 by fires about twenty- two and fifty years before 1908 that killed 

 some trees, but red firs were gradually dying when' the examination 



