358 OUR NATIONAL PARKS 



advantages of climate, and the kind of trees, 

 the charring is generally deeper along our line, 

 and the ashes are deeper, and the confusion and 

 desolation displayed can never be rivaled. No 

 other route on this continent so fully illustrates 

 the abomination of desolation." Such a claim 

 would be reasonable, as each seems the worst, 

 whatever route you chance to take. 



Of course a way had to be cleared through the 

 woods. But the felled timber is not worked up 

 into firewood for the engines and into lumber for 

 the company's use ; it is left lying in vulgar con- 

 fusion, and is fired from time to time by sparks 

 from locomotives or by the workmen camping 

 along the line. The fires, whether accidental or 

 set, are allowed to run into the woods as far as 

 they may, thus assuring comprehensive destruc- 

 tion. The directors of a line that guarded 

 against fires, and cleared a clean gap edged with 

 living trees, and fringed and mantled with the 

 grass and flowers and beautiful seedlings that 

 are ever ready and willing to spring up, might 

 justly boast of the beauty of their road ; for na- 

 ture is always ready to heal every scar. But 

 there is no such road on the western side of the 

 continent. Last summer, in the Kocky Moun- 

 tains, I saw six fires started by sparks from a 

 locomotive within a distance of three miles, and 

 nobody was in sight to prevent them from spread- 

 ing. They might run into the adjacent forests 



