Arizona republican., 1895-01-03
A SMOKY CONTINENT.
That Is What North America Has
Been Of Late.
Notes of a Traveller Who Crossed to the
Pacific During the Recent Great
Forest Fires-Strange Sights
and Incidents.

Reports continue to come in of forest
and prairie fires in the west. The fires
in Montana and later in the north
west have been followed by others in
Tennessee, Kentucky and Arkansas.
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 unprecedented in the
history of this country. The fires
reached from the great lakes to the Pa
cific.
A New York Sun reporter who went
west just before the Minnesota disas-
ter 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 it was necessary frequently to
blow the fog whistle of the 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 the smoke was so thick
that it was impossible to see more than
the length of the ship when approach
ing the breakwater. On Lake Superb
or the smoke was so dense that scores
of birds lost their way and welcomed
the ship as a place of refuge. They
We're birds that almost never venture
beyond the forest, and so exhausted
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 songster, almost as delicate
as canary, lighted on the head of the
reporter and rested there for fully fif-
teen minutes, while the reporter re-
manned in conversation with party of
at least half dozen. 1t was impossi-
BILE to see the famous Apostle islands
as the ship went by them, and the har-
Dor of Duluth was in thick haze.
On the way down from Duluth to
Minneapolis the fires were burning
freely in the famous lumber district,
but there was no indication Of the ter
rible disaster that was to overtake
Hinckley the next week. The country
had been so long without rain that
everyone seemed to think that it must
come in day or two, and there was
little apprehension that anything
more serious than that which had al
ready happened could occur. Travel
ers could see a few hundred feet out
of the car windows, and as night came
on the thin line of flame eating it's
way through the leaves and underbrush
was visible every mile or two.
In St. Paul it was impossible to see
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 as
the eye could see. The cattle had
been driven back to the mountains,
the herders said, in some cases for hun
dreds of miles. The streams of water
and the little lakes, that are the saliva
ton of the country for grazing purposes,
were dried up. Occasionally there
would be patch for eight or ten miles
that would be unbarned, but over the
the mounds in that rolling coun-
try there could be seen the approach
of the fire, and there was no way tC
stop it.
At night the fires were especially
beautiful. The face was never more
than from six to eight inches high. Dc
casionaliy 1t ran in a straight line par
allel with the railroad for distance
of several miles. At other times il
formed crescents and circles up the
sloping sides of some extended knoll
Again there were acute and obtusf
angles, and as the smoke rose ant
filled the air it made it impossible t.
see clearly for more than few hun
dred yards.
In the Rocky mountains it was the
same story. Far up the peaks, close t.
the limit of the wood belt, scores o.