43 



sportsmen who were seen there the day before the fire was discov- 

 ered. This case seems easy of proof. Smokers start most of the 

 fires in this locality. A match thrown down, or a pipe knocked out, 

 will start a fire in a few minutes. 



Mr. Byron Ames, Nehasane, Hamilton county. The origin of this 

 fire will always be a mystery. There appears to be no reason to sus- 

 pect malicious intent ; and there is small probability that it was due 

 to carelessness. It started near an old stump where some bottles 

 and tin cans had been thrown from unoccupied camp buildings for 

 many months. Some claim that the rays of the sun acting on the 

 bottoms of the old bottles were brought to a focus, the same as when 

 passed through a sun glass. Another theory is that the fire caught 

 from flying embers blown there from other fires. This is a very 

 plausible theory, because for days the air had been full of sparks, and 

 of the millions falling some few must have carried fire. Only the 

 day before, May I9th, the men at work there found a small fire 

 spreading on the surface of a path or road in some old sawdust, and 

 they extinguished it. Thev could not account for its origin. Mr. 

 Conklin, a log jobber within four or five miles of this point, about 

 this time found two fires in the woods, the origin of which he could 

 not account for. It is very probable that they caught from wind- 

 dropped embers. The chief firewarden of the State and the war- 

 den of the town of Long Lake were at this fire. They approved of 

 the course pursued in handling it, and no unfavorable criticism was 

 made to me either during or after the fire. The situation was a try- 

 ing and desperate one, and the wonder is that the destruction was 

 not greater. 



Mr. W. D. Jennings, Long Lake, Hamilton county. I sent Dis- 

 trict Firewarden Michael McManus to the fire. He claims that it 

 was the same one which had been burning in the muck, and that the 

 wind blew it up. We supposed it was entirely extinguished. I sent 

 to Newcomb for help, and by June ist we had 125 men on the line 

 backfiring and trenching. 



Mr. Martin Boh, Morehouseville, Hamilton county. This would 

 have been a very serious fire but for the promptness of Theodore C. 

 Remonda, District Firewarden, to whom great credit is due for 

 reaching the place with men and team as soon as it was possible to 

 do so. By sundown we had it under control, so that on the next day 

 we wholly extinguished it. 



Mr. Frank Stanyon, Wells, Hamilton county. I am sorry to say 

 we have got three fires in this town, but they have not done much 

 damage yet, as they are burning on land that has been burned over 

 before. It is covered mostly with briers, brakes, and dead tim- 



