John Muir was an American-Scottish naturalist who loved storms. In his essay " A Windstorm in the Forest", he wrote that he delighted in his experience of climbing to the top of the trees and riding out the storm for hours. He would then close his eyes and listen to the music of the storm or indulge himself to the rich fragrance that was streaming past.
Muir's writing is on both the beauty and harshness of nature. He talks about the beauty of the flower he discovered, but then talks about having to go without supper or blankets and how storms and the harsh weather conditions became welcomed after probably showing up a lot.
I believe the answer is, "pastoral"
Hope this helps!
This isn't a great story, to be quite honest. The story focuses less on the ways man used to start fires and more on the ways that nature started fires independently of humans.
That being said, it would seem as though the author is trying to express the fragility of fire early on, and it does seem as though he/she is saying that early on, humans just found a small amount of fire from a really dangerous origin to use as a kindling.
For sure, your answer should come from the second paragraph, which is the paragraph describing early kindling methods.