398 BURNING OF THE FORESTS. 



ashes stood grimalkin seriously purring in concert with the wheels. The 

 hunter and I seated ourselves each on a stool, while the matron looked 

 after her domestic arrangements. 



" Puss," quoth the Dame, " get away ; you told me last night of this 

 day's rain, and I fear you may now give us worse news with tricky paws." 

 Puss accordingly went off, leaped on a bed, and roUing herself in a ball, 

 composed herself for a comfortable nap. I asked the husband what his 

 wife meant by what she had just said. " The good woman," said he, 

 " has some curious notions at times, and she believes, I think, in the 

 ways of animals of all kinds. Now, her talk to the cat refers to the fires 

 of the woods around us, and although they have happened long ago, she 

 fears them quite as much as ever, and indeed she and I, and all of us, 

 have good reason to dread them, as they have brought us many calami- 

 ties." Having read of the great fires to which my host alluded, and fre- 

 quently observed with sorrow the mournful state of the forests, I felt 

 anxious to know something of the causes by which these direful effects 

 had been produced. I therefore requested him to give me an account of 

 the events resulting from those fires which he had witnessed. Willingly 

 he at once went on nearly as foUows : — 



" About twenty-five years ago, the larch or hackmitack trees were 

 nearly all killed by insects. This took place in what hereabouts is called 

 the " black soft growth" land, that is the spruce, pine, and all other firs. 

 The destruction of the trees was effected by the insects cutting the leaves, 

 and you must know, that although other trees are not killed by the loss 

 of their leaves, the evergreens always are. Some few years after this 

 destruction of the larch, the same insects attacked the spruces, pines, 

 and other firs, in such a manner, that before half a dozen years were 

 over, they began to fall, and, tumbling in all directions, they covered the 

 whole country with matted masses. You may suppose that, when par- 

 tially dried or seasoned, they would prove capital fuel, as well as supplies 

 for the devouring flames which accidentally, or perhaps by intention, 

 afterwards raged over the country, and continued burning at intervals 

 for years, in many places stopping all communication by the roads, the 

 resinous nature of the firs being of course best fitted to ensure and keep 

 up the burning of the deep beds of dry leaves or of the other trees." — 

 Here I begged him to give me some idea of the form of the insects which 

 had caused such havoc. 



" The insects," said he, " were, in their caterpillar form, about three 



