nches in diameter. Vine maple, willow,
and mountain ash have sprung up along the streams and the hillsides are
covered with huckleberry bushes and a variety of grasses and flowering
plants.

Similar old burns are found on the ridge between Huckleberry Creek and
White River, in the northeastern part of the park, and on the ridge
between Tahoma Creek and Kautz Creek below Henrys Hunting Ground.

The old burns in the middle altitudes of the park occupy regions once
frequented by the Klickitat Indians. Every summer parties of hunters and
berry pickers from the sagebrush plains crossed the Cascades with their
horses. They followed the high divides and open summits of the secondary
ridges until they came around to the open parks about Mount Rainier
where they turned their horses out to graze and made their summer camp.
The woman picked huckleberries and the men hunted deer and goats. They
made great fires to dry their berries and kindled smudges to protect
their horses from flies. It was also their custom to systematically set
out fires as they returned. Burning made the country better for the
Indians. The fires kept down the brush and made it more accessible. Deer
could be more easily seen and tracked and the huckleberry patches spread
more widely over the hills.

No considerable part of the lower forests of the park has been burned.
The principal danger is from lightning. However, few of the trees struck
are ignited and these fires are usually extinguished by the rain. On
account of the coolness of the air and its greater humidity the fire
danger in the forests on the lower slopes of Mount Rainier seems much
less than it is in corresponding situations in the main range of the
Cascades.

AGE AND DIMENSIONS OF TREES.

Trees grow more rapidly at low altitudes than at higher and cooler
elevations. Under similar conditions some species increase in size
faster than others, but the rate of growth depends principally upon
environment. The average increase at the stump in valley land is about 1
inch in 6 years. A Douglas fir growing along the stage road between the
park boundary and Longmire's, at the age of 90 to 120 years may have a
breast diameter of 20 inches and yield 700 feet of saw timber. But many
of the trees of this size may be much older on account of having grown
in the shade or under other adverse conditions. The trees between 200
and 300 years of age are often 40 to 50 inches in diameter and may yield
an