uddenly panic-stricken, and plunged for the bank and
off into the woods, followed by all the rest.

When we reached the pool there was still one ridge or spur of the
mountains between us and the fire, making a black wall in front of us,
above which was nothing but a furnace of swirling smoke and red-hot air.
It seemed as if we waited a long time for the flames to top that wall,
because, I suppose, they travelled slowly down in the valley beyond,
where they did not get the full force of the wind. Then we saw the sky
just above the top of the wall glowing brighter from red to yellow; then
came a few scattered, tossing bits of flame against the glow and the
swirling smoke; and then, with one roar, it was upon us. In an instant
the whole line of the mountain ridge was a mass of flame, the noise
redoubled till it was almost deafening, and, as the wind now caught it,
the fire leaped from tree to tree, not pausing at one before it
swallowed the next, but in one steady rush, without check or
interruption, it swept over the hill-top and down the nearer slope, and
instantaneously, as it seemed, we were in the middle of it.

I remember recalling then what my father had said to the other bears
about not being able to run away from the fire if the wind were blowing
strongly.

Had we not been out in the middle of the pool, we must have perished.
The fire was on both sides of the stream--indeed, as we learned later,
it reached for many miles on both sides, and where there was only the
usual width of water the flames joined hand across it and swept up the
stream in one solid wall. Where we were was the whole width of the
pool, while, besides, the beavers had cut down the larger trees
immediately near the water, so there was less for the fire to feed upon.
But even so I did not believe that we could come through alive. It was
impossible to open my eyes above water, and the hot air scorched my
throat. There was nothing for it but to keep my head under water and
hold my breath as long as I could, then put my nose out just enough to
breathe once, and plunge it in again. How long that went on I do not
know, but it seemed to me ages; though the worst of it can only have
lasted for minutes. But at the end of those minutes all the water in
that huge pool was hot.

I saw my father raising his head and shoulders slowly out of the water
and beginning to look about him. That gave me courage, and I did the
same. The first thing that I realized