The state chronicle. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1883-1893, 1884-04-12
THE FOREST FIRES.
A MAGNIFICENT AND APPALLING
SPECTACLE.
4 Description of the Appearance Of the
Great FiTe.-The Extent OF the Loss
Along its Course.

Special Correspondence Of 7ae Caroaacse.
HAMLET. April s.-The steady and al
most uniform body of the advancing blaze
goes along the ground fed by grass and
twigs. This varies in height with the
quantity of burnable matter. Usually IL
was as high as mans waist. The fire
would have been terrible enough if this
had been all, especially when this was
sweeping over the face Of the whole coun-
try at a rate Of from twenty to forty miles
per hour. For the wind was almost tor
nado. Suppose there had been no trees
nor fences nor piles of wood nor settle
ments, we should then have had as great
a scourge as the celebrated prairie fires in
the West are-an advancing flame which
drives everything before it and from which
there is no escape. This alone would have
been a terrible thing, and a sight never To
have been forgotten
But this was not all, nor even the worst.
The flame made by the grass and twigs
was going through thick pine forests,
where in most places the trees We're boxed
and were coated with turpentine. 1t took
hold on every one of them, and from every
one of them blazed high and far. To the
somewhat uniform blaze of the stubble,
therefore, were added these thousands of
instantaneous higher blazes, like peaks in
was this all Whenever it took hold on a
dead pine it ran up thirty, forty, fifty,
sometimes hundred feet and blazed forth
from every knot and branch along its body.
While the blaze was thus burning and far
ing up almost to the clouds, the grass fire
had gone on and was constantly lighting
up other high blazes, and these dead trees
We're burning miles behind the advancing
column of flame.
Every one of them. too, added new dan
ger. If a narrow swamp or a wide road
had saved any particular section from the
lower blaze, the wind blew sparks from the
trees on fire sometimes several hundred
yards and thus started another general
| blaze on its course.
Many trees which were boxed three C
| four times and had become thoroughly
| dry and saturated with turpentine, were
| burned down. To the destruction wrought
| directly by the fire, therefore, must be
| added that caused by hundreds of trees
| falling and when they fell, they fire.
| quently set others on fire.
| After the country had been entirely
| fameswept, and most Of the smoke had
gone away, in every direction at night you
could see the hi gh blazes of burning
trees and hear more and more falling
There never was a grander sight on that
terrible night than the pond at Hamlet.
| The dry trees which stood in it had caught
on fire near the top-caught from brands
blown from other tree-tops-and every
one was a gigantic torch. They burned
from the top down towards the water.
At frequent intervals burning limbs would
fall and siZZle in the water all the while
| the roar Of the flames continued, and the
sound was made more dismal by its com
ing over the water. 1t was almost as
light as daylight, and the leaping flames
were clearly reflected in the water be
low. Meanwhile all around trees were
falling, and the advancing body Of flames
was going on and on, doing more de
| StructiOn.
I shall never forget that sight, and
saw nothing in the war that made Sc
grand and terrible an impression on me