Fighting Fires and Thieves 187 



of air to fill the space emptied by the vertical cur- 

 rents. These winds in turn carry the flames for- 

 ward, so that they easily leap over roads, and even 

 pretty broad watercourses. The object of fire pro- 

 tection must always be to prevent the blaze, when 

 it has once broken out, from gaining such dimen- 

 sions that it becomes uncontrollable. The begin- 

 ning is always small, and easily managed. 



Next to the system of roads and lanes comes a 

 careful policing of the forest. If there is some- 

 body whose business it is to see that no fire gets a 

 start, there is practically no danger of appreciable 

 damage being done. There is no reason, of course, 

 why the watchman should not combine with his du- 

 ties of fire-guard more or less of the other work of 

 the many kinds constantly to be done in a well- 

 kept forest, so that the expense of maintaining a 

 guard becomes very insignificant. In fact, every 

 person employed in or about a forest naturally be- 

 comes a fire-guard as soon as it is once understood 

 that fires must not be allowed to smoulder. It is 

 quite possible for one man sufficiently to police a 

 forest three thousand and more acres in extent. 

 Forest fires rarely spread rapidly at the beginning. 

 They may smoulder even for days and weeks with- 

 out extending over more than a few square feet of 

 ground, waiting to be fanned into a blaze by a live- 

 lier wind. During all this time they make their 

 presence known by clouds of blue, pungent smoke 

 that cannot fail to strike the guard's eyes and 

 nostrils. 



