AUSTRALIAN BUSH FIRE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18294, 10 January 1923, Page 9

AUSTRALIAN BUSH FIRE.

BLUE MOUNTAINS ABLAZE.

MUCH BUSH DESTROYED:

A MAGNIFICENT SPECTACLE.

Hoavy bush fires have been raging lately in the Blue Mountains, says a Sydney paper. The flames have swept through miles of virgin bush, sending hordes of snakes, rabbits, and other wild things scurrying for their lives, and destroying' thousands of acres of beautiful ferns and shrubs. Around Warrimoo there is a scene of desolation, and some residents have narrowly escaped disaster..

Early in the week the fires were miles away from K&toomba, but day by day the flames crept nearer, until the whole valley below the Federal Pass was filled with smoke, through which the flames glowed. ,

The flames greedily licked up leaves and shrubs, fierce tongues darted into little dells, leaped across waterfalls, and rushed relentlessly along distant ridges until the whole landscape was weird and wildly beautiful. J The hills and valleys were swathed in a strange opal tint, which made the mountains glow like a great opal sunset. At night the scene was one of grandeurlike the camp-fires of a mighty Army in the great depths. Hundreds of visitors stood awed upon the cliffs as they gazed upon the fire fiend's work. ■ The noises of the approaching fire alone were impressive loud, fierce cracking of the flames, the crashing of trees upon the ground, and the occasional thundering to earth of some forest giant that had defied the gales and storms of perhaps a hundred years. Around the Orphan Eock and the Three Sisters the fire was especiallyfierce, and the smoke hid those mighty masses of rock from view for a considerable time. Katoomba, however, enjoyed a full quota of visitors, who crowded all available space in the boarding houses. At night the mountain visitors witnessed a magnificent display of nature's fireworks, thousands of acres of flames stretching for miles right down to Glenbrook and beyond. From the windows of the mountain trains miles of gleaming flames were, seen dancing across the countryside, flinging weird arms into lonely little ravines, and illuminating them like day, playing games of hide and seek around logs and stumps, rushing up trees,, and making their limbs flare like giants' torches, aglow to shine like myriads of Chinese lanterns. , ■ And the strange shapes those wonderful flames formed! Some leaped about in circles, some wound like a yellow snake across the hills., others formed heart-shapes or the outline of a sword or dagger; yet others shone like jewels in the reflection of pretty mountain pools, and away out on the skyline distant flames gleamed redly on the horizon. Behind, where the path of the fire fiend lay, gaunt, blackened trees and stumps bore silent witness to the conflagration. "Where daintv ledges of ferns had. hung above lovelv little pools is now only dismal blackness, and it will be some time before the valleys will be as beautiful as before the fire fiend's visit. The fires, however, will do some good. They have cleared miles and miles of dead bush, and a new, green crop of shrubs and ferns will soon crow to cover and heal the scarred patches. *.-.,."