And, now, I saw a sight which made me turn in good earnest.
I was in lofty timber, and, as I paused, I heard the mighty cracking of fire coming through the wood.

At the same instant the blinding smoke burst into a million tongues of flackering flame, and I saw the fire--not where I had ever seen it before--not creeping along among the scrub--but up aloft, a hundred and fifty feet overhead.

It had caught the dry bituminous tops of the higher boughs, and was flying along from tree-top to tree-top like lightning.

Below, the wind was comparatively moderate, but, up there, it was travelling twenty miles an hour.

I saw one tree ignite like gun-cotton, and then my heart grew small, and I turned and fled.
I rode as I never rode before.