few cattle were missing yet, so we had to again start out in the snow on the search the next day.

When we sat down to supper and got warm in the evening, my brother and I had quite a discussion as to who should stay at home the next day and who should go on the search for Otto. Both of us wanted to go, but that was out of the question that we could both go; we decided the case in an impartial way: namely, by tossing a coin. "Heads you win, tails you do not." I had to stay.

Mounted upon a good, strong horse, my brother started out on his long journey, through a foot and a half of snow. The ride would naturally be a long and disagreeable one to Durango, under such circumstances.

II.

I staid up until a very late hour that night, expecting our absent friend to appear at any moment. I played solitaire, read and amused myself with music to while away the time. No one appeared, so I finally went to bed.

All night it snowed steadily, and when I awoke next morning the snow had reached a depth of two and a half feet. It had ceased snowing, yet a haze prevailed which screened the sun. No one had yet appeared. No news of any kind was available. The nearest telephone or telegraph station was fifteen miles from camp. was nearly beside myself with anxiety about our friend.

I

My work done around camp, I again started in pursuit of the remainder of the missing cattle, hoping to have them all gathered by the time my brother again returned.

While riding over the mountains that morning, I noticed a horse some miles away on a high mountain, apparently alone. Knowing, however, that all of our horses had been gathered, and that this animal was just outside the pasture fence, I paid no further attention to it.

I had excellent success that morning, and by ten o'clock had all the cattle gathered and corraled. I at once proceeded to divide the cattle into their places; that is, separate cows with small calves; yearlings and steers all into different lots, in order to make feeding easier.

Having my work all completed outside, I set to work getting supper, and drying my clothes, which were soaking wet, owing to an accident which I had met with that morning.

While riding down a steep incline pursuing a wild steer, I failed to observe until too late that I had ridden directly on a shale rock, which, being flat and smooth, in addition to being wet, made it a regular trap for a horse to fall on, which my horse at once proceeded to do. As my horse slid down the rock and tried to regain its feet, it would fall, first on one side, and then on the other. Being unable to extricate myself from the saddle, I received the full benefit of the fall. Covered from head to foot with snow, I became drenching wet when the snow melted. However, I sustained no serious injuries, beyond a few scratches and bruises.

Just as I was about to sit down to eat supper, I heard footsteps approaching on the trodden path. I immediately ran out to see who it could be. "Was it an hallucination under which I was laboring?" "Was it a ghost?" "A shadow?" "Or what was it?"

Hat gone, clothes torn, hair disheveled and bloody, face as white as the snowy surroundings, trembling like an aspen leafthus appeared this object before me.

It was Otto. I rushed to his assistance and almost dragged him bodily into the house. He appeared to be perfectly helpless, so I at once discarded his wet clothes, and replaced them with dry ones and sat him in a chair near the fire in order that his nearly frozen limbs (as I surmised they must be), might thaw out.

I spoke to him. He did not answer. His face wore a blank expression. He was unconscious of any one's presence, or of his surroundings. He appeared to be in a dazed, half-unconscious condition. His eyes were sunken deep into their sockets, and his face was horribly drawn. He was altogether a heartrending object to behold.

Shortly after he was brought into the house, he gave a terrible groan and sank to the floor, limp and apparently lifeless. I applied what stimulants were available and laid him upon a couch. He laid in this unconscious state for hours, without showing any signs of reviving.

III.

When my brother started for Durango it was pitch dark, and he had to travel through an unbroken road for five miles before he came to the main road, which had also been traveled, but little since the storm.

Heedless of everything, he wielded his way through the storm and snow, and arrived at Durango early in the morning. He immediately made inquiries at the livery stable as to whether Otto had left, or if he had, at what time. He was informed by the stable boss that Otto had left Friday morning, and should have arrived at home that day early in the afternoon.

Although Otto was not a drinking man, my brother inquired as to whether he showed any signs of intoxication upon leaving the stables, but was informed that he was in perfectly normal condition when he left the stables. There being no stopping places along the road, made the possibility of his having become intoxicated vanish.

After feeding the horses and refreshing himself, my brother started on his homeward trip. He made many inquiries along the road as to whether Otto had been seen. At the last house before reaching home (about ten miles from home) he was told that Otto was seen passing at about one

o'clock Friday afternoon. Thinking that Otto must have had a runaway somewhere between there and home, my brother made careful observations along the road, thinking that some signs of the wagon might be found. Finally he came to a deep arroyo, and to his perfect astonishment there lay Otto's wagon at the bottom of it. He dismounted and made careful investigations as to the condition of affairs; the wagon was turned and badly damaged; here and there laid, or rather hung, pieces of the broken harness on the brush.

over

The pro

visions were all gone; evidently some person passed shortly after the accident occurred and took what he could find.

On account of the depth of the recent snow, it was impossible to track the horses, who had evidently crossed the mountains. in order to get home the shortest way. A more thorough search of the immediate vicinity failed to bring more definite

clews to rest upon the matter of the accident. Thinking Otto must have escaped injury, my brother started home, hoping to find him safe at camp upon his return. In this he was not mistaken, for Otto had indeed returned home, but oh, in what a deplorable condition.

IV.

When Otto regained consciousness, shortly after my brother's return, he looked about in a bewildered, perplexed way, and asked where he was. On being told that he was at home, he seemed greatly astounded. After he had somewhat regained his composure and collected his wits together he proceded with his story, which was as follows:

"I started from Durango early Friday morning, thinking I could get back on Pine River in the early part of the afternoon in order that I might assist you boys that day in gathering the stock, as the weather indicated an impending snowstorm. The load I had was quite heavy, but the horses were rested and ambitious. At twelve o'clock I reached the divide which is ten miles from home. Ten miles down-grade with a good team I considerered a two hours' drive. At that rate I should have reached home at two o'clock.

As I was driving down the grade I noticed some cattle along the side of a hill. Thinking some of our cattle might have got out of our pasture and strayed here, I decided to notice them carefully. In doing this I neglected my team, which was not keeping to the road. Suddenly I felt the wagon tip over. thing I remembered. I have only a hazy transpired.

This was the last From that time on, recollection of what

"How long I lay unconscious in this arroyo, into which I had fallen I do not krow. I have a hazy recollection of crawling out of the arroyo, and wading through the snow among the mountains, utterly lost and bewildered. At times I was conscious of nothing that occurred, vet I wandered aimlessly through the woods, onward and onward. Instinct must have told me that if I stopped in the snow to rest I would perish. Everything seemed unfamiliar. I could think of nothing. I had forgotten my name, where I was from, or where I was going.

"Instinctively I must have wandered toward home, for the next thing I recollect is that I was in a deserted house (which is about five miles from camp) before a blazing fire. I have not the faintest idea how I came there, or how the fire was started. I was stricken with terrible pangs of hunger, and was nearly dying of thirst. I remember taking my hat, which I had fortunately not lost, filling it with snow and holding it over the fire to melt. Naturally, the fire burned my hat, and let out the snow, which soon extinguished the flame. At this I was terribly frightened and rushed out of the house like a madman. I ploughed through the snow as fast as I could. I imagined that I was being pursued by some horrible monster. After I had run for some time, I saw in the distance before me an object which appeared to me to be a cave. I hastened toward it in my mad flight, thinking that there I would be safe. As I neared this haven of refuge, as I thought it to be, I was approached by some person. I made an endeavor to retreat. I was seized and dragged into the place. Being so fatigued I could offer little or no resistance. Here I was put before a fire, as I imagined, to be roasted alive. At the thought of so horrible a death, I fainted. From that time on, everything is a blank to me. I have no idea how I came here. I can now

scarcely believe that I am safe at home with you boys."

After we had listened to Otto's story, which seemed more like a nightmare to us than a reality, we concluded that he must be seriously hurt, and one of us immediately went to our nearest neighbor for assistance and also to summon a physician.

After the doctor came and had the patient taken care of, I started in pursuit

of the team.

It occurred to my mind that the horse I had seen the day previous might have been one of the team. I rode to the spot where I had seen it, and sure enough it was one of the sorrels. Her harness had become entangled in the brush, and in her efforts to free herself, she had bound herself more firmly. The animal was nearly starved. All that she had had to eat was snow. This, in a very meagre way, served as water. I released and brought her home with difficulty. The other horse was never found alive. The skeleton was found, together with remnants of the harness a year or so later.

Otto had sustained quite a serious fracture of the skull, and had to be taken to the hospital for treatment. After remaining at the hospital for a few weeks, he fully recovered from his injuries, but he never could forget his terrible experience on the frontier.

AS

W

ITH EACH successive year, the problem of the proper protection of our forests becomes of greater importance. This is not because fires, on the average, are more numerous or that their destruction is worse, but, rather, because the prodigal and criminal waste to which the forests have been subjected ever since the country was settled is beginning to bear its legitimate fruit. According to the best experts, the end of our forest resources, with its accompanying evils of flood and erosion, is already in sight. Even now these things are seriously affecting portions of our country.

As long as the forests were believed to be inexhaustible, neither fires nor the wasteful methods of the lumbermen attracted any attention. From time immemorial the lumbermen have gone into the forest and cut what they wanted, taking no thought as to the future demands. Fire has frequently followed the cutting of timber and given the finishing touches to the destruction of the forests. Carelessness as to the starting of fires has existed everywhere throughout our country, and vast areas have been swept clean. We are now awakening to the fact that the forests are essentially public property, although unfortunately the larger part of them have passed from Government control into private hands. The general prosperity of all the citizens of the United States is affected by the treatment of the forest areas, and as far as the public at large is concerned, laws should be passed regulating the cutting of the forests in private holdings. You and I are affected, and we should have the right to say that the forests should not be despoiled in the interests of any man or set of men. We should and can control the fires which do so much damage each

year, and we should see to it that the lumbermen make only a legitimate use of the forest. Such a use must have regard to the rights of the whole people, both now and in the future.

As the matter of fire protection stands at present there is neither unity of action. among the individual owners of forest lands, nor any definite co-operation on the part of most of them with the U. S. Forest Service.

As a result of the particularly disastrous fires in portions of the West the past summer, all sorts of ridiculous ideas on forest protection have found their way into print. Many of these have been accompanied by direct attacks upon the methods of the U. S. Forest Service. The critics fail to take into account the magnitude of the problems involved as well as the fact that even the best system is bound to fail at times if deficient in men and facilities on account of lack of funds.

Among the recent recrudescences of old and exploded notions is that of regularly burning over the surface to protect the forests, as the Indians are said to have done previous to the coming of the whites. This idea is presented in an article by Mr. George L. Hoxie, which appeared in Sunset Magazine for August of 1910. The author advocates the use of fire as a "practical" means of forest protection as distinguished from the "theoretical" method which he asserts is practiced by the U. S. Forest Service.

Mr. Hoxie's argument is interesting, and to those not thoroughly familiar with the facts in the case, may seem quite plausible and a simple way of disposing of a very perplexing question, but as we shall see later, it will not stand analysis. The conclusion reached by him that the use of fire is the only means of preserving the