33 
had been caused by a wandering hunter. Upon going to the fire and 
making an examination we were astonished to find no evidence of a 
camp and 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 cireuin- 
ference. 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 amabilis fir, several fallen dead trees, and probably 
two hundred saplings, most of them small ones. The forest litter and 
some of the logs were still burning, but on account of the presence of 
many green saplings in the undergrowth and of a small huckleberry 
(Vaccinium scoparium) 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. 
Not long afterwards, near the northeast base of Mount Washington, the 
party passed through a thunderstorm of an extremely violent charac- 
ter, in which the strokes were repeated and terrific, and many trees in the 
immediate neighborhood must have been struck. The rainfall accom- 
panying this storm, though evidently sufficient to put out any fire that 
may have arisen, was much lighter than the writer has ever seen in the 
eastern United States, and he was informed that sometimes not enough 
rain accompanies such a storm to dampen the forest litter. It is possi- 
ble 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. 
Other causes.—Near the head of Wood River, 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 to examine this 
fire on the spot, but persons who had looked into the matter with care 
stated that the fire had originated in a camp of some men who were 
splitting shakes, a sort of large, coarseshingle. The men had seta num- 
ber of small fires to keep themselves, so they said, from annoyance by 
mosquitoes. This fire is estimated to have burned over 15,000 to 18,000 
acres. 
A few instances are known 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 to set single fires and sometimes lines 
of fires in the woods, particularly in the vicinity of salt licks. There is 
good reason to believe that fires of this character frequently occur. 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 
14384—_No, 15——3 
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