102 North American Forests and Forestry 



ing along the roadsides or trails. Yet hardly ever 

 does a passer-by take the trouble of putting them 

 out. This would seem to argue a strange moral 

 defect on the part of the inhabitants of these 

 regions. Would any decent man hesitate to put 

 out a fire he saw approaching a powder-mill ? Yet 

 a little thought will convince us that the moral 

 callousness of the passers-by is only apparent. 

 They are merely following the prudent rule of 

 minding their own business. Fires kindled in the 

 woods, intentionally and legitimately, are so com- 

 mon that you cannot tell but what the roadside 

 blaze may belong to this class. Its originator may 

 be in the immediate vicinity and reappear the next 

 minute to watch the flames. In such a case would 

 not the officious stranger who put them out be 

 like the man who forcibly kept a bather from going 

 into the water, in the belief that he was saving an 

 unfortunate fellow-man from suicide ? 



Most fires, even if left entirely to themselves, go 

 out after a while of their own accord, without 

 having spread over more than a few feet of ground, 

 or having done appreciable damage. Green vegeta- 

 tion is not a good food for flames, and is rarely 

 consumed except by fires of very great dimensions 

 and consequently enormous heat. In places where 

 there is no large accumulation of dry, dead material 

 the danger is consequently insignificant. It is 

 but a small part of the fires that ever spread at all, 

 and even those which assume large proportions 

 soon come to a stop. The great disasters so often 



