Lake of Fire

“ The air was filled with fiery particles, which floated even to the doorstep—while the crackling and roaring of the flames might have been heard at a great distance.
To reach the shore of the lake, we must pass through the burning swamp, and not a bird could pass over it with unscorched wings. The fierce wind drove the flames at the sides and back of the house up the clearing; and our passage to the road or to the forest, on the right and left, was entirely obstructed by a sea of flames. Our only ark of safety was the house, so long as it remained untouched by the fire. ”

“ Everything was frozen hard as a rock. The wind, sweeping down the lake, drove the fine, loose snow before it like smoke from a forest fire. There was no shelter. We had to stand out and saw ice in the bitter wind, which seemed to pierce to the very marrow of our bones. It was impossible to keep a fire; and it always seems colder when you are standing on ice. ”

“ Many plunge breast-deep into the lake, and there during long hours stand many hundreds of people, feeble women, some with babes in their arms, many sick and aged, till the fire subsides and rescue comes. Nearly one hundred thousand souls are fleeing before the merciless flames. During that fearful Monday this great throng continue their flight without food, without water, scorched by the hot blast, their clothes and often their hair on fire; the stronger bearing the weaker in their arms and on their shoulders, they rush on, every moment pursued by the flames. ”

“ So quickly did the flames advance that Hector and Louis had only time to push off the canoe before the heights along the shore were wrapped in smoke and fire. Many a giant oak and noble pine fell crashing to the earth, sending up showers of red sparks, as its burning trunk shivered in its fall. Glad to escape from the suffocating vapour, the boys quickly paddled out to the island, enjoying the cool, fresh air of the lake. ”

“ The hours passed; darkness fell. Then from a black cloud that had gathered over the Great Lake, Way-wass-i-mo, the red-eyed Lightning, shot his bolts of fire. Crash—boom—crash! An-ne-mee-kee, the Thunder, shouted hoarsely from the heavens. A wild wind arose; the trees of the forest swayed and groaned, and the foxes hid in their holes.
Way-wass-i-mo, the Lightning, leapt from the black cloud, and darted at the cliff. The rock trembled; the door was
shivered, and fell apart. ”

“ Spreading like a circle in the tideless lake, the fire knows no bounds, save when exhausted for want of fuel, it turns back on itself and dies.
See, with bounds swift and longer than an antelope ever compassed, it o’ertops the tallest leaves—runs stealthily along like a golden serpent, darting spitefully its forked tongue of living flame on every side, while crackling, hissing, roaring, its terrible writhings uncoil. In waves of living fire, flashing from a background of dense inky smoke, it rushes on, regardless of barriers, and scornful of bounds, a winged maelstrom of devastation. ”

“ If you miss the glory-land, there is only one more place—the lake that burns with fire and brimstone—a place where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched. If there is no fire there, as some contend, then it is a place of black, thick darkness. ”

“ Whenever a flaming bough or a mass of burning foliage came toppling to the ground nearby, they would train a jet of fine, foglike spray on it. Watching this panorama, Sandy was once again impressed by the fact that the fire behaved at times with what seemed like animal intelligence. Time and time again, treacherous fingers of flame would stretch out to the men, driving them back behind the safety of the ridge. ”

“ Many a camp-fire I have had in the alpine outskirts of the forest. I remember especially one night, when I camped alone where pioneer trees, rusty cliffs, a wild lake-shore, and a subdued, far-off waterfall furnished sights and sounds as wild as though man had not yet appeared on earth. This night, for a time, a cave man directed my imagination, and it ran riot in primeval fields. After indulging these prehistoric visions, I made a great camp-fire with a monumental pile of tree-trunks and limbs on the shore of the lake, close to the cliff. ”

“ Lake, between Spruce Fork and Bear Pass Trail, close to O'Brien's Spring." In less than an hour a ranger leaps from his panting pony and with shovel and axe hastily digs a narrow trench through the vegetable mould in a circle around the fire. Then a few shovelfuls of sand go upon the liveliest blaze and the fire is under control. As soon as there lives a good, sympathetic public sentiment concerning the forest, it will be comparatively easy to prevent most forest fires from starting and to extinguish those that do start. ”

“ The smoke of my camp-fire has barely reached above the trees, when Indians are seen coming from all directions, some on horseback, others on foot; and canoes in fleets dot the lake, that stretches away until lost in the distance, like a fresh-water ocean. I feel very uneasy. The two Sis-ky-oues have gone, vanished mysteriously. Hastily collect dry wood and light a circle of fires, within which I enclose my mules. I am mobbed by ugly half-naked demons, who are evidently doubtful whether to be friends or foes. ”

“ Above, near the summit of the mountain, flashed the red eye of a charcoal burner's fire; beneath only the plateau sloped to a ragged edge easterly, for the lake was hidden under the shoulder of the hills. No firefly danced upon this height ”

“ The Charming Serpent gave Dogberry the candles to hold, took a bottle of Champaigne, and handed me another. Then shutting the door, he said,
“This is the fire-water that hath no evil in it. It courses through the veins like a silvery lake through the prairie, where the wild grass waves green and placid, and it makes the heart merry like the merriment of birds in the spring-time, and not with the fierce fires of the dark lake, like the strong fire-water, that glows red as the living coal. Brothers, we will drink.” ”

“ To the traveler and the hunter, a camp-fire in the lonely wilderness is always cheering; and to ourselves, in our present situation, after a hard march in a region of novelty, approaching the debouches of a river, in a lake of almost fabulous reputation, it was doubly so. ”

“ More fair than roses, lo, the flowers of fire!
Saranac Lake.
XVIII The stormy evening closes now in vain,
Loud wails the wind and beats the driving rain,
While here in sheltered house
With fire-ypainted walls,
I hear the wind abroad,
I hark the calling squalls—
‘Blow, blow,’ I cry, ‘you burst your cheeks in vain! ”

“ Wild shrieks, deep groans, the scream of frightened birds, the plunge of swimmers in the water, and all the fearful turmoil of a night surprise! Where lately the silent brushwood hooded over its dark image in the lake, the leaves blush ruddily with the sudden blaze of bursting stars of flame, as the white men fire upon the swimmers in the water-hole.
Then comparative quiet again. The opening scene in the act of bloodshed is almost as soon over as begun, and then the fearful work of despatching the wounded commences. ”

“ Sandy said, and circled around behind the ridge.
The protected slope was teeming with men and machinery. Bulldozers scurried up and down like huge beetles, clearing off everything inflammable. Tank-trucks were moving slowly along the foot of the slope, their crews sweeping big firehoses across the face of the forest. Trees were doused from crown to root. Other smoke-eaters with hoses were lined up on the crest of the ridge like soldiers, dwarfed by the monstrous flames that seemed to arch over them threateningly. ”

“ The Indians call it “The well with the White Smoke”. In the company, we call it simply “The little blue lake”.
Tale XIV: Forest Fires Forest fires are the scourge of the wilderness. Certain years, in the late spring or during the summer, when the weather has been unusually dry, a mere spark may start a blazing tornado which will lay utter waste throughout thousands and thousands of acres of timber.
The carelessness of a trapper throwing a lighted match on the ground. The thoughtlessness of a traveller going to sleep or breaking camp without putting out his fire. Lightning striking a tree. ”

“ A LIVELY TIME IN THE DARK
Slowly but surely Snap got closer to the campfire, which was built in a little hollow and screened from the lake by a wall of rocks.
"They built the fire there so that we couldn't see it from across the lake," reasoned the young hunter, and he was right. ”

“ At last, on the 29th of the said month, about two hours in the night, the earth opened near the lake, and discovered a horrid mouth, from which were vomited furiously, smoak, fire, stones, and mud composed of ashes; making, at the time of its opening, a noise like very loud thunder: the fire, that issued from this mouth, went towards the walls of the unfortunate city; the smoak was partly black and partly white; the black was darker than darkness itself, and the white was like the whitest cotton: these smoaks, rising in the air, seemed as if they would touch the vault of heaven ”

“ We ought to know all this country up around Pioneer Lake like a book; and once we get our bearings it’ll be easy for us to tell whose place is most in danger.”
“In most cases,” said Hugh, “as far as I know, when a forest fire gets fully started, and with a wind to drive it on, all the men that could be got together can’t stop the spread of the flames. They’re bound to keep on jumping ahead with all the sparks blowing until it rains and puts the fire out.” ”

“ We’re clearing a strip about ten feet wide just below the crest on the far side here. We’ll start our backfires down there in that tall grass at the edge of the woods. Then for good measure we’ll light another one along the top of the ridge.”
Sandy was puzzled. “One thing I don’t understand. Why are you making the fire line on the slope away from the fire?”
Macauley grinned. “Because fire burns a lot faster and picks up more momentum going uphill than it does going downhill.” ”

“ A solid wall of fire blocked the first 600 feet of the trail that ran to the hill, and they had to detour more than a hundred yards into the woods. Machines and men crashed by them on all sides, hurrying in the opposite direction. ”

“ The ranger’s face was grim. “There’s nothing on this earth as unpredictable as a forest fire. I won’t believe she’s really out until I personally squash the last ember under my boot.”
Quiz stared off into the ravaged grove at the other side of the clearing. “Those trees, will they die?” he asked the ranger.
“A tree is like a human being,” Dick explained. “It can survive some pretty bad burns, although it may be scarred badly. Underneath the bark there’s a thin layer of living matter called the cambium, which can be compared with the underskin on a human being—the dermis. ”

“ Frenchmen are nothing to them; the fire which dried their clothes and warmed their fingers loosened their tongues, and they kept up a continual gabble for the greater part of the day. Scarcely a winter passes that some persons are not lost in this pass during such storms. A gloomy lake on the summit of the mountain, into which the bodies are thrown for burial, receives the name of “The Lake of the Dead” (Todten-See) .
Monday morning, still enveloped in the clouds, but the storm apparently over. Found it no use trying to make a visit to the Rhone glacier ”

“ We have ascertained that a like draught blows down each of the other valleys running into Gjendin, making the lake a centre. That in ours begins gently directly the sun has set, and increases in strength until it amounts to a stiff breeze; and as it comes direct from the vast snow fjelds, it is a disagreeably chilly blast, which freezes that side of our bodies remote from the fire, and leads us to envy the happy condition of a leg of mutton 223 attached to a roasting-jack. ”

“ but every lyar
Must have his portion in the lake
That burns with brimstone and with fire. ”

“ If the guard sights a fire anywhere within the watershed of Lake Tahoe, he immediately obtains men at the nearest point and proceeds to the fire. Since the launch has been on the Lake there have been no serious fires. Every fire has been caught in its infancy and put out before any damage has been done. There has been only one fire of any size on the Lake since the launch was installed. This burned about 20 acres just east of Brockway. Numerous small fires of an acre or less have been put out each year. ”

“ When you are on the other or east side of Lake Ontario, a great many leagues [II-535,
II-536] from the fall, you may every clear and calm morning see the vapours of the fall rising in the air; you would think all the woods thereabouts were set on fire by the Indians, so great is the apparent smoke. In the same manner you may see it on the west side of Lake Erie a great many leagues off. Several of the French gentlemen told me, that when birds come flying into this fog or smoke of the fall, they fall down and perish in the water ”

“ Macauley sighed. “They’re working strictly on nerve.”
Lukas accompanied the ranger up to the top of the ridge, while the other two Canadians mobilized their crews to go into action. From this vantage point, it was possible to trace the course of the fire since its beginning. With the heavy screen of foliage destroyed, the boundaries of the burned-out area were clearly defined. There was a long narrow strip parallel to the ridge, swelling out into a sector of more than 300 acres to the southwest. Only a feeble surface fire was burning around the fringes of this area now ”