The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1877-07-27

GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION OF a RECENT SCENE
m MICHIGAN.

GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION OF a RECENT SCENE
m MICHIGAN.
People wonder how wilderness OF
trees, each clothed in its spring dress,
can become sea of fame, but every
thing is food for forest fire. If the
first sheet of flame does not smitc the
green pine or devour the leaves of the
beech and maple, il parches and dries
them for the flamcs to follow, and the
stout pine, shooting hundred feet high
becomes a beacon light for moment,
then sways, tottcrs, and goes down with
an awful crash, to burn until heap of
ashes alone marks the earth.
Your correspondent was in Osccola
county when the fires first began. In
the midst of n wilderness of pine and
thiclct, miles away from village or ham,
let, was apioneer's cabin. The clearing
around il comprised about ten acres.
Some Of the ground was ready for corn,
and some Of il had been sowed and
planted, while the forest around was so
damp and green that one would have
smiled al the idea of great sheets of
flame climbing those tall trees and way
ing fifty feet above them. One night
some hunters built grand fire against
heap of dry logs. The next day they
were miles away, and the fire had begun
to creep. Little tongues of flames
reached out after dry sticks and limbs,
larger tongues followed them, and be-
fore night the fire had control of an acre
of forest. That was start enough. AT
midnight the wind came up fresh, and
the heat of the fire drove through the
forest, scorching and baking trail for
the red flames.
"Pm afraid there is a fire in the woods
to the west of us" said the pioneer one
morning as we stood at his cabin door.
We could scent the odor of burning
trees and leaves, and there was a smoky
look TO the forest. AT noon the odor
was stronger, the smoke denser, and the
live stock around the clearing began to
exhibit signs of alarm. When the oxen
were unyoked TO be fed they turned
their heads to the west, scented the air
for moment, and then charged across
the clearing to the east at full speed, be-
ing out of sight in two minutes.
"That means danger" said the pion.
eer, III low voice, and he turned pale
He believed the fire to be in large
swamp ten miles away, but hardly
thought it possible for the green forest
trees to ignite. We sat down to dinner,
meaning to hunt for the oxen afterward
but before the meal was over there was
fresh cause for alarm. A buck and
two does dashed into the clearing, close.
ly followed by fox, score of rabbits,
and dozen cOons and woodchucks
The deer ran to the far edge of the clear
Ing as we went out, bun the other ami
mails scarcely noticed us.
"You go forward as far as you can
and see what the danger is, and wife
and l will get ready for run" said
tho pioneer as the smoke grew thicker.
AT that moment fresh alarm and a
new warning reached us. There came
q roar like the sea gives out when rush.
Ing III upon broken beach. We had
not heard 1t before. 1t was a steady,
terrible roar, rising above all other
sounds. A coming whirlwind might
have created the same sound. The rush
of vast herd of buffaloes might have
created such roar. 1t was awful
The ground trembled, the smoke became
blacker and the heat was like the rush
of air from q hot oven.
ut isn't mile away-we must run
for our livesw shouted the settler.
He had three children. Ipicked up a
boy of seven. The pioneer seized his
girl, two years younger, and the wife
took the sleeping babe from the cradle
There wasn't time to take down a spare
garment from the wall-to pick up a
cherished gift or treasured relic.
"This way-hurry! | heard the
pioneer call out, and, gasping for breath
and blinded by the smoke, pushed on
after him.
The roar was louder and grander and
moro terrible. Falling upon us and
around us were little brands of fire, and
to the west, half mile away, was a
wall of fame n hundred feet high-a
wall which was coming down upon the
clearing at the rate of SIX miles an hour.
The wall of fire was twelve miles long,
and the waters of Lake Erie would have
scarcely drenched it out.
A deer ran against me as staggered
after the pioneer. More than once |
stumbled against the small wild animals
rushing here and there through the
clearing. My hair and whiskers were
scorching, and my clothing was on fire
in dozen places, when we reached the
outdoor cellar, a place dug into hill
side about four hundred feet from the
house. 1t was part cave, part structure,
but well covered with earth and almost
free from smoke. The two children
had passed through all right, but the
babe was SO nearly suffocated that we
had hard work to save its life.
Just before the flames reached the
clearing the ground trembled as il did
around Gettysburg when five hundred
pieces of artillery thundered away for
hours. The smoke drove ahead, leav-
ing me pretty fair view of cabin and
clearing for five or six minutes. Birds
dropped down and died. The deer
rushed around in circles, sometimes run
ming full against stumps. The smaller
animals roared, and barked, and fought
each other, and several rabbits found
our retreat and rushed in among us.
When the flames reached the edge of
the clearing, five hundred feet from our
cave, the ground in front of us fairly
baked. The wild animals fell down
and died, steam rose from the green
stumps in clouds for moment, and then
fire broke out. We wondered If the
flames would leap the clearing, but the
question was speedily decided. The
wall of fire roared and quivered, rose
and fell, and the next moment was driv-
ing ahead on the other side. The flames
seemed to have reached right over The
ten acres and grasped the forest beyond.
Our cave was like an oven. The earth
on the roof was soon baked as dry as
powder. The green logs began to stew
and burn, and In ten minutes we were
almost as wet as if we had fallen into
the river, and were hard pressed for
breath. Buried In the side Of that hill
we were in the center of an ocean
of flame, of acres Of the hottest kind
of fire For nilaa 10 tho rast 4ha