XXIV 
THE WAPITI 
279 
of extinguishing it before departure. The strong 
wind had blown the sparks into the inflammable 
mass of dried pine needles, with which the ground 
was deeply covered; this was blazing in various 
places, having already communicated the fire to 
several of the dead trees which strewed the surface. 
It was a curious example of inflammable material 
en masse ; everything seemed prepared for ignition, 
as though a natural depot of lucifer matches. In 
more than a dozen different places the ground was 
on fire over an area of half an acre ; these isolated 
patches were spreading with great rapidity, and 
upon arrival at a spruce tree, the flame ran up the 
bark with surprising avidity, licking up the surface 
in forked tongues, and, when reaching the branches 
(if withered), it seized upon the fresh fuel, and flared 
with horrible vigour. This showed upon a small 
scale the commencement of a forest fire, which 
would quickly extend into a terrible conflagration. 
We were fortunately at hand to extinguish 
the danger in its birth, but we had to work hard 
for at least a couple of hours before we could 
accomplish our work. The stream ran through 
the centre of the forest, and as Bob Stewart had 
brought a pail, he devoted his attention to damping 
out the ground fires. We cut large branches 
of green spruce, and dipped them in the stream ; 
with these we beat out the flaring edges where 
the pine-needles were in a blaze, or smouldering. 
It was annoying to see how new spots of fire 
appeared, apparently by magic, as there was 
