moved, and in places every burnable thing on 

 the surface was consumed, and even tree-roots 

 were burned out two and three feet beneath the 

 surface. 



Though weirdly interesting, these ashen 

 fields of desolation were not wholly lifeless. 

 Here, as elsewhere, feasters came to banquet, 

 and good fortune brought favorites to the scene 

 of panic and death. Flocks of gorged magpies 

 were about, and unwontedly bold coyotes, both 

 filled and foraging, were frequently met with. 

 At one place a half-dozen beaver were portaging 

 round a tumble of charred tree-trunks that ob- 

 structed the brook-channel. Fire had destroyed 

 the food-supply, and the beaver were seeking 

 home and harvest in other scenes. A grizzly 

 bear was wading their pond and feasting on the 

 dead trout that floated on the surface. Two 

 black bears, despite terrible threats from the 

 grizzly, claimed all the fish that came within 

 reach of the shore. They discreetly kept out of 

 the pond. 



Two fawns and their mother lay dead at the 

 foot of a cliff. Either blinded or terrorized by 



136 



