The Evening Times

INDIANS AS INCENDIARIES.
Deliberately Setting Fire to the Forest Reserve in Montana.

KALISPELL. Mont. July 26.-One of the worst forest fires ever known in this part of the State is now raging in the Swan Lake county. on the western part of the Lewis and Clarke forest reserve Gus Moosier. Superintendent of the Reserve. has just arrived here from the scene. and reports that the Indians are deliberately setting fire to the timber. slaughtering the game. and creating havoc. At one lodge his rangers discovered fifteen fresh carcasses of deer. and at another they found fifteen more and one elk. all killed within a period of twenty-four hours.
Within a space of thirty miles up and down the river. he says. there are over thirty fires now burning fiercely. He has ordered crews of men from Missoula. and has also sent a large outfit from Kalispell. He says that many millions of acres are burned and are burning. and that it is the finest white pine and cedar on the reserve. It is almost impossible to say when the fires will be extinguished or just what the damage will be. as fast as one fire is extinguished another is set. and the rangers are almost worn out.