175 



ordinary prairie fire, on the contrary, was a slowly moving fire, 

 with its flames reaching heights of three to ten feet, or rarely 

 more. When such a fire reached the margin of the forest, with 

 even less fuel, its intensity and destructive power were still 

 further decreased, so that it is doubtful if mature trees were 

 ever killed by a single fire. But the seedlings must certainly 

 have been destroyed in large numbers, and the repeated charring 

 of the bark of the larger trees led after a few years to their death. 

 Statements to this effect may be found in several of the older 

 books of travel. Loomis (1825)* states: "I have observed that 

 on the western edges or borders of all the large prairies a thick 

 growth of young timber is springing up, whereas on their eastern 

 borders no underbrush is found within many rods of the open 

 lands. The heat and fury of the flames driven by a westerly 

 wind far into the timbered land . . . destroying the under- 

 growth of timber, and every year increasing the extent of prairie 

 in that direction, has no doubt, for many centuries added to 

 the quantity of open land found throughout this part of America. ' ' 

 Brackenridge (1814, p. 109)1 rnakes a similar statement: " • • • 

 the progress of the fire can be traced; the first burning would 

 only scorch the outer bark of the tree; this would render it 

 more susceptible to the next, and the third would completely 

 kill." And as a last quotation, the rather explicit statement of 

 Jones (1838, p. 90) J may be given: "This yearly burning consumes 

 all the new trees and shrubs, and leaves the ground entirely un- 

 encumbered. The old trees, likewise, are annually diminishing 

 in number. Scarcely a tree but is marked with fire, and when 

 once the bark is penetrated by the fire, and the wood of the 

 tree seared, the fire takes a readier and deeper hold thereon, 

 until at last it overpowers and destroys it, and the tree falls 

 with a startling crash, and generally consumes before the fire 

 dies out, unless a violent rain extinguishes it, and leaves it for 



previously had been high, was increased by the blaze which it fanned; and with 

 such vehemence did it drive along the flames, that large masses of them appeared 

 actually to leap forward and dart into the grass, several yards in advance of the 

 line. It passed me like a whirlwind, and with a fury I shall never forget." 



* Chester I^oomis, Notes of a journey to the Great West in 1825. Pamphlet. 



t H. M. Brackenridge, Views of Louisiana. Pittsburgh, 1814. 



X A. D. Jones, Illinois and the west. Boston, 1838. 



