Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1885-03-26
a FOREST FIRE.

DIe VI tSSonlZlnp pOSlJlOn can De con-
c2ll7718ii, foS = human being than TO be
comprised around BY fire, every avenue
OF escape barred by the devouring ele-
ment, and nothing ahead but the horri-
bic certainty of being roasted alive,
more or less slowly according to the
nature of the surroundings. One gen
orally associates the idea of the most
fatal and hopeless CONGREGATIONS with
buildings, but fraught as the burning
of a large hotel or theatre may be with
desperate situations, there are occasion
al instances in the free air and under
the open canopy Of heaven which may
match any fiery ordeal ever bounded
by four walls. Nor have we to look so
far as the broad plains of Texas or its
adjacent territories for instances like
these. California sometimes supplies
situations which, while they may lack
the grandeur of dramatic breadth of
the prairie fire, with its herds of flee
ing buffaloes, its leagues of blazing
grasses, and its desperate horsemen,
nevertheless involve conditions of ter
TOR and peril comparable, within cir
cumscribed limits, to those evoked by
the red demon of the prairie.
The North of the Gualala River,
which divides Sonoma from Mendocino
County, is one of the principal logging
centers of the state. The high bluffs
overhanging the stream on either side
merge, in their turn, into steep slopes
reaching back into interior attitudes
covered with redwood forests, and in
many places rendered almost impass-
able by thick underground or. brush
known in the vernacular by the generic
term chaparrGL.
One sultry afternoon, not many sum-
mors ago, the loggers and mill hands
in Harmon's Mill were taking their
customary noontide hour of rest before
resuming work. The mill and cabins
where the men live are built upon some
more than usually level bench land
shelving from the river bank, while
above and beyond the country slopes,
away into canons and mountain ranges
more or less denuded of timber in pro-
portion to their accessibility, and here
and there covered, in tracts sometimes
of many hundred acres in extent, with
dense scrub growth and chaparral,
through which the wayfarer has to work
slow and tortuous passage, keeping
in view the general direction he desires
to travel in, and pushing his way be-
tween or around the clumps or masses
of brush as best he can. Now and
again bare patches of a few rods in
extent break the monotony of the will
derness of chaparral, but these are the
exceptions, and not the rule.
Mighty hot day." remarked Tom
Briggs, as he got up from his reclining
position, in which he, with half dozen
more of the mill hands, was in the
habit of taking his after-dinner "lay-off'
on the shady side of the dining shanty.
"Goin' to hey purity tough time snak-
in them big logs outen Little Greek
Canon, I guess. Mout's we'll hitch up
them bulls an be done with it, though"
he added, philosophically, knocking the
ashes out of his pipe and stretching
himself preparatory to taking his de-
parture.
Seems to me this heat amt natu-
raj, put in Long Jim, the tie-splitter.
There sort O. stife in the air, too,
that don't seem to smell right
Look up yar!'' exclaimed Humpy
Dick, pointing up the slope in front;
dye see that glimmer in the air? I'll
bet that fire"
The words had scarcely left his
mouth when another logger joined the
group.
Boys" he said, hurriedly Little
Creek Canon's afire. Eff suthin' amt
done mighty quick We'll lose terrible
pile O wood, to say nothin' O the STAN
MIN timber eff she spreads to the back
ranges.
The camp was soon in commotion
throughout its length and breadth.
Parties were speedily organized and set
off in different directions to ''head off,
the fire and arrest its progress at all
the strategic points in the neighbor-
hood. Tom Bridges, the bull-whacker;
Long Jim, the tie-splitter, and HumPy
Dick, the logger, formed the members
of one party that started up the right
bank of the canon. This bank was
almost denuded of trees, but thickly
covered with brush, through which the
flames were now running riot, but
steadily moving onward and upward.
Suddenly, an exclamation from Humpy
Dick caused the party to look in the di-
rection toward which he pointed.
There, not five hundred yards ahead of
them, but lower down the slope, could
be seen the thinly clad figure of an In
dian girl, with something in her arms,
frantically trying to make her way up
the steep side of the canon to a point
which would be out of the reach of the
advancing flames.
Il swar!" cried Tom Bridges; ''that' s
Indian Meg, An she's got her baby
with her. Been a-berryin', sure, an
got caught afore she cud get out"
keep up the canon, Meg" shouted
Long jim, making a speaking trumpet
of his hands. ITS yer on'y chance.
Yell never get out o. the way eff We try
to mount the hill"
Whether it was that the girl did not
hear the advice given her by the wood
men, who were now themselves making
the best of their way through the chap
arral, above the track of the flames, or
whether she considered that the safer
course lay in getting to position, like
theirs, above the fire, it was impossible