FOREST commissioner's REPORT. 53 



J. L. Chapman, of ^Milo. chief warden for the district includ- 

 ing East and West Bowdoin College Grants ; T. 7 R. 9 ; Elliotts- 

 ville Plantation ; Katahdin Iron Works ; T. 5 R. 9 ; T. A R. 1 1 ; 

 T. A R. 12 ; T. B R. II, reports : "During the early part of the 

 season of 1910 we repaired the telephone line from Roach River 

 to the top of White Cap Mountain, where there is a lookout sta- 

 tion. Later in the season the telephone line was repaired from 

 Brownville to B Pond and up the East Branch of Pleasant river. 

 The repairing of this East Branch line was great advantage to 

 the forest fire district service as men upon patrol upon Town- 

 ships A and B Range 1 1 had no means of communication except 

 by messenger by the way of Katahdin Iron Works, and in case 

 of fire, which should be beyond the control of the patrol men, 

 they would be obliged to leave their work, making a trip to the 

 Iron Works, a distance of fourteen or sixteen miles; therefore 

 the benefit of the telephone line. 



''The season of 1910 perhaps had its advantages and although 

 we had no fires to contend with I feel that the men we have had 

 upon patrol have worked to good advantage in creating a re- 

 newed interest with the campers and tenters of fishing parties 

 and hunters. Many of these parties have flocked to the Maine 

 woods during the season, and the men under my control have 

 not had any difficulty whatever with any parties who have been 

 in the woods. A mutual interest seems to be created from the 

 new system which the department has been endeavoring to work 

 out, an interest of mutual benefit to all. 



"People who own sporting camps are realizing the advantages 

 of keeping out the forest fires which are not only a menace to 

 ^heir camps and property, but are an injury to the beauty of the 

 forest, aside from the danger to its wealth. 



"One young man under my patrol on Wilson Pond relates how 

 fishermen getting wet in their boat by a shower which came up 

 during the afternoon, went ashore and built a fire against the 

 side of a big pine log to dry out their clothing, and as the fish- 

 ermen afterwards stated, they considered there would be no 

 danger from the fire on account of its raining at the time of its 

 being built, but four days afterward the ground was still burn- 

 ing, and the ground had burned beneath the top soil and spread 

 over a large territory. The young man upon patrol had to cut 

 out the burning sods, throwing them into the water, making 

 openings through which he could pour water to extinguish the 



