There seems to have been a strangely dramatic element, a
'specialty of horror, about the recent forest fires in Wisconsin and Michigan. The flame bad not time, as it were, to destroy the trunks of the pines, but leaped on the leaves and branches, and leaped along at hurricane speed, carrying with it a blast of burn- ing fur which destroyed everything that had life. Flight was im- possible, the only resource was to plunge into water, and for this there frequently was not time. Large numbers killed themselves with their pocket-knives rather than bear the roasting. Others inhaled the air for a moment, and are slowly dying of internal burns. In the village of Peshtego, 750 inhabitants, 500 are dead, most of them drowned as they rushed into the pond for protection. The burning fragments of the village were carried fifty miles, and the deep cloud of smoke hung over it for a week—writes an eye- witness—keeping up a darkness as of midnight.
Previous page
