The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1894-11-18
4 sMoRE-COTERED CONTINENT.
Notes or q Traveller Who Crossed to the
Pacific Durisg che Great Fires.

Notcs " y IravcleF no srOsseu TO tno
Pacific During the Great Fires.
Reports continue to come in OF forest and
prairie fires in the West. The fires in Montana
and later in the Northwest have been followed
by others in Tennessee, Kentucky, and Arknn-
sas. Those who have made a study and record
OF extensive fires on plain and in forest say that
those Of last summer and this fall are unprece-
dented In the history of this country. The fires
reached from the great lakes to the Pacific.
A sun reporter who went West just before the
Minnesota disaster passed through a haze Of
smoke that extended clear across the country.
He went from Buffalo to Duluth on the lakes,
and so thick was the smoke that 1t was neces-
sary frequently to blow the fog whistle OF tho
steamer for an hour at a time. All the fog
whistles at the lighthouses on the lakes were
kept going night and day. Near Cleveland tho
smoke was 80 thick that it was impossible to see
more than the length OF the ship when APP
preaching tho breakwater. On Lake Superior
the smoke was so dense that scores OF birds
lost their way and welcomed the ship as
. place Of refuge. They were birds that almost
never venture beyond the forest and so ex-
hausted were they that they were practically
tame. They took crumbs out OF the hands Of the
children on board the vessel, and one beautiful
little green and yellow s~ongster, almost as deli
cate as u canary, lighted on the head OF the
reporter and rested there for fully fifteen min
utes, while the reporter remained in converSa-
ton with a party OF at least half n dozen. II was
impossible to see the famous Apostle Islands as
tho ship swept by them. and the hsrbor of Du-
luth was In a thick haze.
On the way Town from Duluth to Minneapolis
the fires were burning freely in the famous lum-
Der district, but there was no indication Of tho
terrible disaster that was to overtake Hinckly
the next week. The country had been so long
without rain that every one seemed TO think that
1t must come in a day or two, and there was little
apprehension that anything more serious than
that which had already happened could occur.
Travellers could see a few hundred feet out OF
the car windows. and AS night came on the thin
line OF flame eating its way through the leaves
and underbrush was visible every mile or two.
In 81. Paul IL was impossible TO see the river
and the city itself from the heights. Out In the
wheat country OF the Dakotas the haze seemed
To lift a little, but when the grazing country OF
Montana was reached desolatiOn seemed To reign.
For fifty miles at a stretch the plains were black
as far asthe eye could see. The cattle had been
driven back TO the mountains, the herders said.
In some cases for hundred or miles. The streams
OF water and the little lakes that are the saliva
ton OF the country for grazing purposes were
for eight or ten miles that would be nnburned
but over the mounds In that aolling country
there could be seen the apprOachbf the fire, and
there was no way 10 stop il.
Al night these fires were especially beautiful.
The flame was never more than from six TO eight
line parallel with the railroad for a distance OF
several miles. At other times it formed cres-
extended Knoll. Again there were acute M
obtuse angles, and as the smoke rose and filed
more than a few hundred yards.
In the Rocky Mountains it was the same
the wood belt. scores Of fires could be seen burn
Ing briskly, where no hunter could have left
his campfire burning. Some Of he fires in the
mlunlAlnH- as We'll as soma nf HhAGa on The
plains, were undoubtedly started by locomotive
sparks, and some were started by the negli-
their camp fires ON leaving for their sport, but
no one could account for the fires far up the
some of the finest glaciers were invisible, and
many Of the most noted peaks were hidden.
the train was far down toward the plains OF
Washington and Just on the edge OF the noun
threw most OF the passengers from their seats
and with a long series OF bumps the cars wers
f SrHeGhe d 10 : SiiSn se4d.; AZ 4 beautiful anti tT tree had
point OF . curve, and IL had been Impossible for
the engineer 70 see It IN time 70 check his speed.
roaring stream, and on the other side was an
embSnkment. Fortunately, the locomotive ran
and delay OF several hours in a Wild forest re-,
glon, inhabited by bears and deer and panthsrs,
women passengers said IL wasia "boogerish"
sort 81 a place, but the others seemed Ia like the
novelty Ola stop in such weird surroundings.
On the Pacific slope the reporter found scores
tourists who had changed their routes and
given up part Of thelrtrips because of the smoke. |
seattle was in a fog, and the attractive Puget
sound was as IL IL did not exist. The sound Of
me log Whistles on the steamboats, was the only
that Seattle was a seaport. An
saimon and other kinds OF fishing was at a stand
,tlI and the citizens were saying that the smoke
Wa . most serious loas to the industries Of the
place. Down through the beautiful and fertile
alleys OF Oregon the smoke hid the scenery,
.nd not until the travellers were close under
hanks Of glorious Mount shasta In upper
JhiforniA could that towering pile be seen All
ne Cascade Range was hidden. and the superb
leaks such as Tacoma, Hood, and Adams. were
II they had not Deen.
Not until the reporter reached the Selkirk
Mountains in British Columbia, on his way
lone, did he md the atmosphere clear. Tho
lotel Keeper at Glacier SAID that the day that
lurst IN spleRdOT over the peaks, ON Sunday 81
ne second week OF September. was the first per-
Getty clear day that had been seen there for
We months, and At Field, on the eastern slope
y Lhe canadian Rockies, the railroad Ohicials
ola the same story. Travellers, railroad men.
weather experts all along the route that ths
fporter went over united In saying that prob
'oly such an extensive band Of smoke never be-
ore hung over the continent. Ii practically
saehed from the Atlantic 70 the Pacihc for al