4 Forestry Quarterly. 



located themselves comfortably in some village or depot and oc- 

 casionally went a little way into the woods. This proved, natur- 

 ally, so unsatisfactory that the holders of timber licenses asked to 

 appoint their own rangers, and this has greatly increased the effi- 

 ciency of the protection. This Company organized a corps of 

 fire rangers consisting of seventeen men, mostly college men, 

 either graduates or those who were studying forestry and wanted 

 some practical knowledge of the woods. An inspector was ap- 

 pointed who travelled with a canoeman over the whole country 

 to see that the rangers were doing their duty, and were supplied 

 with provisions. The rangers travelled two together, each party 

 having, besides a light fifteen-foot, canvas-covered canoe, 

 baker tent, with mosquito net, light sleeping bags and cooking 

 outfit. In addition each party had two axes, one shovel and two 

 folding canvas buckets. Two men covered about one hundred 

 square miles, the districts being laid out so that some large 

 streams ran through each one of them and as all summer travel is 

 by water, the rangers could see all parties going into their dis- 

 trict, follow them up and put out at once any fires which might 

 be started. They were required to keep a diary showing their 

 location each day, the weather, names of persons going through 

 their territory, a list of all fires, how, when and where started and 

 by whom, when discovered and how extinguished. During the 

 exceptionally dry weather of the past season only twenty fires 

 were started and all but one were extinguished without damage. 

 The one which could not be controlled was in a section which had 

 been lumbered, and the tops and slash made it impossible to check 

 it. The damage however was slight, but it would have been much 

 worse if the rangers had not been there. All rangers are ex- 

 officio justices of the peace with power to arrest any one caught 

 breaking the fire laws. One arrest was made, the offender being 

 fined fifty dollars or three months in jail under suspended sen- 

 tence. 



The most dangerous class of people in this country, as shown 

 by an analysis of the causes of our fires this past season, are 

 the settlers, who have no regard whatever for the law and are 

 most reckless in setting fires in their clearings. We hope by edu- 

 cating these people as to the value of the timber, teaching them 

 that it is the forest which gives them work and fire wood, build- 



