Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1890-10-24
A PRAIRIE FIRE.
A Graphic Description Of the OncOmiD
OF the Wall - Flame.

OF the Wal, - Flame.
One who has spent tie greater part
Of his life on the Western plain gives
the following description Q! prairie
fire: We all sprang up to see one OF
the saddle horses-a veteran in years
md exl misunderstanding with his bead
high in the air and painted due west.
While he looks as fixedly as if his eyes
had lost their po'Ter to turn, his nos
trils culver and dilate with excitement.
We watch him full minute. He was
the first to exhibit alarm, but now one
horse after another throws up his head
and looks to the west.
Its fire, boys"
Had it been night we should have
seen the reflection. Had there been a
strong wind the odor would have come
to us sooner. There is only a gentle
breeze-languishing, dying under the
fierce sun, but resurrected and given a
new lease Of life at intervals by an un-
known power. But now we can see the
smoke driving heavenward and shutting
the blue of the west from our vision
now the horses show signs that no man
could mistake A great wall of flame
listy miles in length is rolling toward
US, famed aud driven by breeze Of its
own creation, but coming slowly aud
grandly. 1t takes me two or three miu-
utes to climb to the top of one Of the
trees, and from my elevated position l
can get grand view OF the wave OF fire
which is driving before it everything
that lives.
We work fast. Blankets are wet at
the spring and hung up between the
trees to make a bulwark against the
sparks and smoke, the horses doubly
secured, camp equirage piled up and
covered and before we are through we
have visitors. Ten or twelve bufa'oes
come laundering pass the groye-halt
and return to its shelter, crowding as
close to the horses as they can and show
ing no fear at our presence. Next come
three or four antelopes, their bright
eyes bullying out with fear, and their
nostrils blowing out the heavy Odor
with sharp snOrts. One rubs against
me and ticks my hand
Yelpl Yelp! Here are half a dozen
wolves, which crowd among the buffa-
loes and tremble with terror, aud a score
of serpents race over the open ground
to seek the wet ditch which carries off
the overfowing Of the spring. Last to
come, aud only a mile ahead of the
wave which is licking up everything in
- ,.ofb = a ,nuefono-o ciuOla animal
which has somehow been separated
from his herd. He comes from the
north, racing to reach the grove before
the fire shall cut him off, and he runs
for his life. With his ears laid back,
nose pointing, and his eyes fixed on the
goal, his pace is that Of a thunderbolt.
He leaps square over one pile of camp
outfit and gees ten rods beyond before
ne can check himself. Then he comes
trottiDg back and crowds between two
of our horses with low whinny.
There Is roar like Niagara. The
smoke drives over US in a pail like mid
NIGHT. The air seems to be one sheet
of flame. The wave has swept up to
the edge Of the bare ground, and il di-
yiding to pass us by. We are in an
oven. The horses snort and cough, AID
plunge, the wolves howl and moan as
the heat and smoke become intOlerable.
Thus for five minutes, and thea relief
comes. The flame has passed, and the
smoke is driven away. In this path is
a breeze, every Whit of which is an
elixir.
In ten minutes the grove is so clear
OF smoke that we can see every foot Of
earth again. A queer sight it i. 1t
has been the haven of refuge for snakes,
lizards, gophers, prairie dogs, rabbits,
COYOTES, wolves, antelopes, deer, buff
faloes. horses and men-enmity, antip-
athy aud hunger suppressed for the
nonce that all might live-that each
might escape the fiend in pursuit.
For half an hour nothing moves.
Then the mustang filings up his head,
blows the last of the smoke from his
nostrils, and starts off with flourish of
his heels. The buffaloes 60 next, the
deer and the antelope follow, and in five
minutes we are left alone.
For fifty miles to the north. west and
south there is nothing but blackuess-a
landscape of despair. Away to the east
the wall of fire is still moving on and on,
relentless, a fiend whose
harvest is death, and whose trail is de-
struction and desolation.