The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1871-10-18

| The fire storm still pursuing it's silent
and undisputed march through the noble
forests of the Northwest beggars descrip-
| ton. In the blaze Of its confagration the
lurd glare of Chicago pales upon the eye.
The mind sickens with the protra ted tale of
horror, and it is only the stifed moan of help
less humanity-Niobe-lke, ''voceless in its
woe'-that can induce the journalist 10 con-
tinue the recital
Since the close of August, as the telegraph
recently informed US, the gorges and valleys
and SUBMITS of the Rocky Mountains have
been on FIRE, and the labors of the National Sur
vey have been seriously retarded by the dense
clouds Of smoke. By whatever agency begun,
such a fire could not be harmless at season
when all nature is withered and scorched by
the summer sun, and especially when kindled
right in the current Of that band Of westerly
winds which eternally sweeps the middle and
higher ATTITUDES Of the globe.
Without stopping to repeat the fast follow
ing kilograms announcing new and ever wider
sweeps of the alarming foe, it is enough for us
to know that the whole country is threatened
with great calamity Are we to have in the
very centre of our Continent, and in the very
midst Of the magnificent granary of the North
west, an artificial desert, rivalling in aridity
and barrenness the famous deserts of the Old
| World? 1t is not improbable that the now
parched and dreary regions Of Central Asia
may once have been covered with vegetation
and forests that made it habitable and happy
home for man. II is not improbable that the
far-famed Valley Of the Nile ITSELF with its
prolific soil, supported a vegetation almost
Auazonian, bat, under the wasting axe of
Egyptian civilization, and by losing ''the rich
ness which the clouds of heaven dropped upon
it," lost its physical wealth and then entered
upon its career of political decay. The fright
full sufferings of the people of Wisconsin, Min
nesota and Michigan, and the sorrows of
Chicago, ought frs. to excite our attention and
awaken every chord of sympathy. For them
the most prodigal extravaganza of charity can,
perhaps, do little more than alleviate
the temporary mseries of their state.
But, beyond the present hour, the
American people have something to do aud to
| learn from their common losses and bereave-
ments in these appalling confagratio IL. One
of the first of these lessons must BE- 30 value
of their i Inheritance il our vast terri org.
| which has heretofore been regarded as little
better than prey for the public plunderer, or at
best as bait for the emigrant. The
HERALD has already pointed out the immense
importance Of the forests Of the Northwest
and of the whole country as the mantle which
nature, Or rather natures God, has spread for |
a protection ov ar the fair bosom Of our Mother |
Earth. The processes which lead to the gradual
destruction Of these forests must be checked
before they have gone too far; for when once
the mischief has been doae no agency of
man, however herculean, can repair the meal
culable damage. The forest tree, through
long ages of English history, was the sacred
property of the Grown, and not even the
huntsman dared intrude upon it, lest he
should infringe upon or mar the sport Of his
royal master. If, under monarchical govern
mont such laws as ruled the forests were
proper for preserving the pleasure of the mon
arch how much more ia America Should :::e
interests of the whole people, in this matter,
be guarded by law and statute?
of the United States west of the Mississippi the
| annual rain fall has never exceeded that which
was necessary to sustain animal and vegetable
| lite. Even in the Valley of the Missouri it has
occasionally been necessary to drive the cattle
in August for hundreds OF miles to water, and
thus pasture them far from home during the
dry season. The hardy emigrant on the east
ern slopes Of the Rocky Mountains has only to
repeat the celebrated experiment of the travel
Ter Deluc (who remarked that the head of his
walking stick always fell off in high mountain
asceuts, from the shrinking of the wood to
learn that the higher and upper strata of the
'~osphere have become dry and vaporless.
ca 10. a. must depend for rain only upon
no snre,ce cnrrsr, Of air. So universal is
this phenomenon of dryness in VIZ lolIiest and
even moderately elevated regions of the air
that during the sojourn of Piazzi Smyth, the
Astronomer Royal for Scotland, on the Peak
of leneriffe-a peak that lifts itself in the Ca
naries out of the very pillows Of the Atlantic
The aridity Of the air was painful and distress
ING to the philosopher. During his residence
/ at The Cape OF Good Hope-the Cabo Tormen-
toso Cor Stormy Cape) of vasco dc Gama-Sr
John Herschel relates that when walking
beneath the tall Gr trees on the
side of Table Mountain be was sub
iected to heavy shower Of rain, but on going
| ont from bensat, the trees the rainfall imme-
diately ceased Even on the ss..ocrm-swept
-
! coast of Scotland, where as the ancient
forest trees decayed along the margin of the
sea, and the peat MOSES crept over their
PROSTATE trunks, the humidity has continued
70 abate year by year until, from want Of
| moisture the verv n,osses. In whose holes. as