SURVEYS OP FOREST RESERVEI#. ' 141 



we took our bearings and struck out for the spot down the mountain 

 side through the woods. In due time we saw the smoke a few rods 

 ahead of us, and hurrying along, we soon came up to the place. We 

 were astonished to find no evidence of a camp, and for a moment we 

 were puzzled, until Mr. Applegate cried, "Look at that tree!'' The 

 tree was a handsome, live Shasta fir, which had very recently been 

 struck by lightning. The tree was still standing, but pieces of bark 

 and shattered wood had been thrown in all directions through the 

 woods to a distance of at least 200 feet. The tree was exactly 10 feet 

 in circumference. The fire had been confined to the ground and had 

 burned over a small area about 50 by 200 feet, including eleven large 

 trees of black hemlock and the amabilis fir, several fallen dead trees, 

 and probably 200 saplings, most of them small ones. The forest litter 

 and some of the logs were still burning, but ou account of the presence 

 of many green saplings in the undergrowth and of a small huckleberry 

 (Vaccinium scopaiium), the fire was progressing slowly. Indeed, the 

 forest litter was so light that only a very strong wind could have made 

 the fire a destructive one. In other situations or under slightly differ- 

 ent circumstances, however, the fire might have proved very disastrous. 

 I have cited this case somewhat in detail, as actual records of light- 

 ning fires are rare in this country. Not long afterwards, near the 

 northeast base of Mount Washington, we passed through a thunder- 

 storm of an extremely violent character, in which the strokes were 

 repeated and terrific and many trees in the immediate neighborhood 

 must have been struck. The rainfall accompanying this storm, though 

 evidently sufficient to put out any fire that may have arisen, was much, 

 lighter than I have ever seen in the Eastern United States, and I was 

 informed that sometimes not enough rain accompanied such a storm to 

 dampen the forest litter. It is possible that lightning fires may be much 

 more frequent in the Cascades than has been supposed, and the subject 

 is certainly one worthy of further investigation by those who have an 

 opportunity to be in the region frequently. 



Other causes. — Near the head of Wood Eiver, on some mountains to 

 the east of the reserve, in the Fort Klamath country, occurred in early 

 August a destructive forest fire. It was impossible for us to examine 

 this fire on the spot, but we were informed on reliable authority by 

 those who had looked into the matter with care that the fire had origi- 

 nated in a camp of some men who were splitting shakes, a sort of large 

 coarse shingle, and they set a number of small fires to keep themselves, 

 so they said, from annoyance by -mosquitoes. Whether the escape of 

 the fire was due to mere carelessness, or whether it was intentional, 

 there is no means of knowing. This fire is estimated to have burned 

 over 15,000 to 18,000 acres. 



I have known in a few instances of small forest fires starting from 

 smudges which had been set in a pile of rotten logs to protect camp 

 horses from mosquitoes and other insects. 



Alleged hunters, in the belief that deer will hunt out smoke to rid 

 themselves of deer flies, are said, and although I have never seen a case 

 I have every reason to believe that many occur, to set single fires and 

 sometimes lines of fires in the woods, particularly in the vicinity of salt 

 licks. In August of this year a fire was burning in the vicinity of a 

 salt lick in Anna Creek Canyon, in a locality away from the route of 

 travel and of such inaccessibility that only a man searching for game 

 is likely to have been there. It is very probable that this fire was set 

 for such a purpose. 



