ship 41, where the large trees grew close to the side of a quiet pool 

 in the inlet of Big Moose Lake, the burning timber threw out a fierce 

 heat that raised the temperature in the pool so that its surface was 

 strewn thickly with dead trout. These were the conditions under 

 which the firewardens and their men were obliged to fight in the 

 fires of 1903. 



At the first outbreak of the trouble the attention of the railroad 

 authorities was called to the dangerous conditions existing along 

 their respective lines, whereupon they issued orders that the screen 

 on each locomotive should be inspected, and that defective ones 

 should be repaired immediately. Still the engines continued to throw 

 sparks and ignite the dead grasses along the track, or kindle flames 

 in the dry brush and fallen leaves along the boundaries of the adja- 

 cent forest. As the resident population was too small in numbers 

 to cope successfully with the increasing fires, the New York Central 

 sent several carloads of Italian laborers to assist in the work along 

 their line, for which no charge was made to the town or State. The 

 superintendent of the Adirondack Division in compliance with a re- 

 quest from this Department placed patrols, one man to the mile, on the 

 Saranac branch in order to protect the State plantation of 700 acres 

 near that portion of his line. Freight trains were divided and run 

 in two sections, for the purpose of lessening the load on the engines 

 and thereby decreasing the force of the exhaust; and on May 7th 

 orders were issued discontinuing some of the freight trains tempo- 

 rarily in hopes that rain would soon relieve the situation. 



But the officials of the Saranac & Lake Placid Railroad made no 

 apparent effort to lessen the danger from their trains, and manifested 

 a surprising indifference when notified of the destruction caused by 

 their locomotives. The great fire which at one time threatened the 

 hotels at Lake Placid, and burned over an area of several square 



