THE CHICAGO AND FOREST FIRES.
[To TEIE EDITOR OF THE SPEC/TATOU:] SIR, —It is said that the great fire at Chicago originated in the. upsetting of a burning fluid-lamp. It may have been so, but I do not believe that was the cause of the fire. Scores of lamps are upset every week in Chicago, and in every other large American city. There had, besides, been two enormous fires just previously., How was it that about the same time great fires broke out in the forests to the north-east, north, and north-west of Chicago ?' There may be sufficient evidence to show that all these fires were atmospheric in their cause. No ordinarY- fire would " consume- stone edifices and marble buildings with almost as much rapidity as wooden ones." "The wind sucked fire through the blocks,, rolled up roofs like sheets of tissue-paper, and burned them into the air." Again, in the forests 4, the soil itself burned, and living trees fell from the action of the fires which undermined them." These are, I believe, no exaggerated reports ; and yet I should' consider them false if they referred to ordinary forest or town fires in America, for I have seen both. I quote from the Times of the 28th inst. :— " At Ohicago on the evening of the 8th balls of fire were observed to.
fall like meteors in different parts of the town, igniting whatever they came in 'muted with. Now a bright light appeared in the south-west horizon, gradually increasing till the heavens were aglow with fire. But a few moments elapsed after this before tho horriblo tornado of fire came upon the people, and enveloped them in flame, smoke, burning sand, and cinders. The inhabitants saw electrical flames Hash in the air, and dance over the surface of the earth around them. But tho fury of the flash was past in ball an hour."
There is here evidence sufficient to make us hesitate before quietly shelving the matter. The upset lamp may have been but a blind- ing coincidence, and even our own great fire may have its true story untold.
When the truth is known about these fires in America, it wilt be found that they resulted from the passage of a great mysterious atmospheric stream, which arose in longitude 62°, swept with a cyclone Antigua and the Virgin Isles on the 21st August, the- Bahamas on the 23rd, and then moved slowly to the north-west,.
striking Chicago and the forests.—I am, Sir, &c., Z.
P.S.—The .New York Tribune says :—" The most striking fact about these great fires is the spontaneity with which they burst forth in a hundred widely-separated places at the same time." A writer from the scene of desolation says :—" The tornado was fearful, and the country one sea of fire. . . The great difficulty seems to have been that the people inhaled what came from the- fire, and hundreds are now suffering intense agony from this- cause." If this be so, then there was certainly a peculiar atmo-- sphere, and the sequel may be a plague over the whole district.
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