PROTECTIVE MEASURES. 649 



they rush forward and beat it out, leaving the flames from 

 either side to meet in the trace, and burn all the standing 

 grass or heather within it. 



It should be noted that however still the air may be, before 

 firing a trace has commenced, the ascent of hot air due to the 

 fire will draw in colder air from all sides to fill up the vacuum 

 thus produced, and if the wind be blowing in the faces of the 

 men on one side of a fire-trace, lighting in the middle of the 

 trace, as well as along its sides, will draw in the flame away 

 /from the men on the dangerous side, in spite of the wind, and 

 will thus greatly facilitate their work. 



On hill-sides, fire-traces should run along ridges, and they 

 may be made zigzag when the hill-sides are steep, and are 

 burned downhill. In forests where numerous fire-traces are 

 cleared annually, it is often advisable to mark off the limits of 

 the guide-lines by a simple trench of the breadth and depth 

 of a plantation-hoe. 



Where the soil-covering is very dense and tall, it is better 

 to burn the traces twice, at first before they are completely 

 dry, and again whenever dead leaves fall on the traces after 

 the grass has been burned ; dead leaves should be swept away 

 or burned, in order to render the trace impassable by fire. 

 This leaf-burning is, however, a simple operation which may 

 be carried out by three or four men, whilst the first burning 

 in dense tall grass may require 20 men, or more. 



If by accident, during the burning of a fire-trace, the fire 

 should get into the forest on either side of it, the further 

 burning of the trace must be suspended until the fire in the 

 forest has been extinguished ; to do this it must be attacked 

 on both sides by the gang of men and driven into the shape of 

 a wedge. 



One or two trustworthy men should follow the firing gang 

 on either side of the trace, and should carefully extinguish all 

 smouldering embers on the guide-lines, and throw all burning 

 twigs and pieces of wood from the latter on to the middle of 

 the trace, so that there may be no possibility of the forest 

 catching fire from the very means which are taken to protect it. 



Very full details as regards the practice of burning fire- 

 traces are given in Fernandez' Indian Sylviculture, and need 



