Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-01-12
"THE MARSH ON FIRE"
A Description Of the Picturesque Eff
fects as Seen From a Distance.

From the Toronto Globe.
A night glow in the low. dark autumn sky
that seems to vault in the struggling light
like roof tells that the withered rushes
of the marsh are suffering the annual con-
fagration. From a favorte point of view
the long, irregular line of flame can be seen
advancing with slow persistency. leaping up
here and there to a startling height, and
sending off burning threads of dry vegeta-
ton on gusts of wind famed into transient
fury by the heat. The line is broken in
many places by intervals Of invisible dark
ness, as it follows the irregular reaches and
lagoons of the marsh or passes in it's haste
by tempting masses of fuel without stop
ping to reduce them to ashes. For time it
dwindles down to a few bright beacons de-
ployed at irregular distances and glazing
about into the night with savage independ-
ence. These soon elongate and encroach
upon the black, invisible breaks and inter
walls, uniting in a long and scarcely broken
chain of undulatng and leaping flame.
No lover Of the marsh can watch the
flame from distance. There is an irresSt
ible attraction in the odor of clean, moist
smoke. in the cracking OF Shrunken stems
and withered blades, in the red glow on the
face of other spectators, in the gimmering
flames mirrored the still water, the
sturdy cattail PUSHES ignoring the passing
attack OF the flames. and the tall, nodding
tufts of the false wild rice feeding the hum
CRY tongues of fire that reach toward the
dark, inclosing canopy Of starlesS sky. The
nre runs ABOUT IN NOISY, eTTatlc
ty. not advancing with the broad sweep
seemingly apparent from the distance, but
doubling in its course, turning sometimes
to run back against the wind and pick up
some easy fuel careesSly overlooked or
stopping suddenly and dying out just where
conditions seem most favorable for a sue
ceSsful advance.
In some places the great sturdy rushes
that rose in tall green sprays through the
summer and shrunk into dense entangle-
ment in the fall are cleared away by the
angry, persistent fire till nothing remains
but tapered, formidable. rounded spikes
pointing upward from the ashes that have
sunk into the watery unstable soil Where
the little sora rail chartered nosiy through
the day and on into the night there is moth
ing but open stubble that would not in the
glare give shelter to marsh wren. The
masses of green foliage where the acrobatic
little wrens came out and scolded so vocif
erously are caught up in ashes by the hot
gusts of wind. BY one of the many queer
freaks of fire the round. struggling, and
quite infiammable nest of a wren is left
hanging in a bunch of rushes while every
thing about that concealed it Is burned
away.
Where the mud hen hurried from the
open exposure of the water there Is no
longer the semblance of shelter. and the
black, wet houses of the muskrats loom big
in the fire that leaves them completely eX-
posed AS the fire works its transformations
the open stretches of water seem to enlarge
while the reaches of bog and solid ground
diminish. With a passing gust some burned
rushes are scattered in ashes. revealing a
little muskrat house. and the shells of the
CLAIMS on which its owner Toasted in the
| summer moonlight glisten in the wavering
light. This Is the seasons last revelation
of the marSh'S many activities. They will
| lie concealed till the frost makes all parts
accessible and invites inspection of the
work of the field mice. wrens, rails, mud
hens, and muskrats as they lived in seclu-
sion In their summer colony.