ATMOSPHERIC FIRES. (To THE EDIToit OF THE SPECTATOR."] Srn,—The letter
of a correspondent in last week's Spectator re-
specting the recent American fires, suggests the inquiry whether the rapid development of the fire at Chicago and the wide-spread Forest fires may not have been caused by a condition of the atmo- sphere similar to the well-known Fon wind of Switzerland.
Of this Tschudi says in his "Animal Life of the Alpine World ":—
" In short, it is the terror of the country Fires are imme- diately extinguished on every hearth and in every oven ; and in many valleys watchmen go about to make sure that this precaution is observed, as a single careless spark might cause a disastrous conflagration in the dried-up state of the atmosphere."
Whether this Fon wind be air heated and rendered intensely dry by passing over the Desert of Sahara, as some have thought, or to whatever other cause it owes its special character,—may it not be that the exceptional coincidence of terrestrial and atmospheric influences in North America resulted in the production of a wind having the same characteristics ?—I am, Sir, &c., E.
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