Here and there the smooth surface of the timber was broken by small clearings. Each of these marked the place where some hardy homesteader had settled in the woods and was making a home for himself and perhaps his family. For the most part they were along stream beds where they could get water. Some of the clearings had evidently been worked for longer periods than others, for they were much larger. The houses and barns which had been erected appeared quite diminutive on account of the large trees standing near by.
Then other open spaces in the velvety green stood out to greet his eye. These were also in many cases the work of man, but from such far different causes. Large white snags stood like gaunt tombstones marking the glory of once mighty trees. These snags could have resulted from only one thing—forest fires. Where the fires were of recent occurrence, the ground was still burned black, but in the older fire areas the second growth timber had made its appearance and the ground was covered by the small trees with which nature hoped to restore the forests to their former grandeur.
Then, again, there were areas where man had left entirely different marks resulting from his activities. The second growth timber had covered the bare places, but there were no snags present. These were places where the land had been cut over for lumber. In some cases the sawmills were still operating and Bill could see the smoke coming from the stacks of the boilers. He could make out the tracks of the narrow gauge which hauled the large logs to the mill and the donkey engines working some distance from the mill, furnishing the power by which the logs were snaked to the narrow gauge tracks or to the slides.
When slides were used to send the timber down the mountain sides, they showed up in a distinct, straight brown streak through the timber. Bill saw one of these slides operating later an and was astonished at the speed at which the enormous logs thundered down the track. The logs passed with express train speed and the friction with the track was so great that many of them were smoldering from the heat when they reached the bottom.
Here and there Bill saw what he thought was the smoke of a forest fire. There was no mistaking a fire when it was large, but there were other columns of smoke ascending which Bill could not identify. They might be coming from other sawmills or they might be small fires.