The daily morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1883-1899, 1888-09-23
FIRE IN THE CALIFORNIA WOODS.

You are in the redwoods and the
hour is about 10 O'Clock at night.
The heat has been intense all day and
the air has been full of smoke. The
forest is on fire, either on your own
place or on that of one of your neigh
bors; for every one turns out to fight
the common enemy, and your house
or his, or both, may be threatened.
All day your men have been busy with
ak and shovel making a trail through
the woods OF clearing out an old one.
A trail for this purpose is merely a
narrow pathway through the woods,
from which the brush is cut and the
fallen leaves cleared away, SO that the
fire will not be able to run across it.
This trail has been cut in semicircle
round the fire, but at some consider
able distance from it, Now you pro-
ceed to kindle the brush all along the
edge of the trail on the side toward
the burning forest.
Already you hear in the distance
the roar of the fire as it advances. the
cracking and crashing of the branch
es as they fall from some rotten tree,
the cracking, kissing and rushing of
the flames as they leap up some bank
thickly covered with brush; and every
moment it is drawing nearer and
nearer, sometimes with leaps and
bounds where it finds plenty to prey
upon, sometimes creeping along the
ground by means of the fallen leaves
with which the forest is carpeted.
Meanwhile the fires which you
have lighted, so small at first,
are growing as they advance
and will soon rival the fire they
were made to combat. On they 60,
seizing everything they meet on their
way. Fallen trees, piles of slabs.
branches and tree-tops left by the
woodman, with great masses of brush
and bramble, provide food enough.
On it goes, for your different fires
have now Joined, and one great wall
of flame goes racing forward, leaving
behind it piles of burning timber,
while here and there some unsound
tree takes fire and stands out huge
flaming torch, burning often for days
after the rest of the fire has passed
away or left only q few smouldering
logs behind. The forest, which few
moments before was sunk in the Deep
est gloom, is now lighted up to its ut
most recesses by a deep lurid glow,
making the great trees look weird and
CHASTITY as it plays on their huge
trunks and massive limbs. The noise
becomes terrific, the roaring, crashing
cracking, groaning and kissing in
creases as the two fires approach
each other. Nearer and nearer they
come, two great waves of fame, lick
ing up everything as they pass; near
er still and nearer-then, with a roar
like thunder at one bound they leap the
intervening space, hurl themselves
into each others arms, and coiling
twisting and shrieking in one wild
embrace, send great tongues Of fire
shooting high into the heavens, light
ing up the most distant mountain
tops with a bright red glow.
All danger is now passed, only care
is still required. The men gather from
their different parts along the line-a
ragged, smoky, erimy looking crew
You think them, and are probably q
good deal surprised when you get
home the next morning to find. that
the raggedest, grimiest, smokiest of
the lot was yourself A huge demi-
john is now produced, and Califor-
man though it be, without even the
usual addition of q French label, No
wine ever tasted as well as that wine
does after the heat and toll of the
| fight.
Nothing much now remains to be
done. Most of the men go home to
bed, a few only remaining to patrol
the trail and watch that the fire does
not break out beyond it. There are
dangerous spots on every trail, where
for instance, great masses of fallen
timber keep smouldering on. occa.
sionally blazing up and throwing ont
sparks for some days, or a standing
tree, having caught fire, may threat.
en- to fall across the trail and kindle
the dry brush beyond. - William
Maitland in Nineteenth Century.