Note 29 — THE FORESTS AND SPORT OF SIBERIA.
Margaret R. Thomson translation
[Note 29] p. 126.—Appearance of Decay in the Forests.
A closely similar picture is given by Mr. E. N. Buxton in recounting a journey in the Rocky Mountains. He says: “This bane of pack-trains is caused by forest fires, which have burnt out the life of the trees, leaving only gaunt stems and blackened ground, followed by tempests which have whirled these tottering giants in heaps to the ground. In places the stems lie parallel to one another, and piled to the height of many feet as though they had been laid in sheaves. Elsewhere, while some have stood the shock and are still erect, their neighbours lie prone at every conceivable angle to one another, and their branches pierce the air as weathered snags. This ghastly waste, whether brought about by natural causes, or the recklessness of man, will have to be paid for some day, for are we not within measurable distance of the inevitable world-wide timber-famine” (E. N. Buxton, Short Stalks, 1893).
See also Rodway’s In the Guiana Forest (London, 1895), and article “Death in the Forest” (Natural Science, Sept., 1892).