44 



ber. You are aware, perhaps, that it is hard to put out fire in such a 

 place as that when it is so dry as it is now, and we have quite a wind 

 every day, which makes it bad. I am doing my best to stop it with 

 as few men as possible. It is not near any valuable timber yet. It is 

 the opinion of some of our citizens that these fires are started to 

 make feed for deer. 



Mr. J. H. Higby, Big Moose, Herkimer county. We have a bad 

 fire up at Sisters Ponds, in Township 41. I put on about 60 men 

 yesterday and some 30 more last night. The belt is about half a 

 mile wide by one mile long, but it is burning like a furnace. The 

 smoke and heat is intense, but we have held it on the west and south. 

 I have got another tough proposition. The men say that I have no 

 right to order them to go into Hamilton county to fight fire. If 

 you will do so, please send me a written order that I may show them. 

 That is not all ; there is a lot of men that refuse to go, not knowing 

 where the pay is to come from. You know there is no provision for 

 the pay before next winter. You see I am handicapped all around. 

 I am sending in seven men that I will pay myself, and the other 

 hotels are sending in some men also. These floating chaps demand 

 their pay at once, but I am unable to advance the money. Mr. Par- 

 sons, the town firewarden, cannot send in men because he has a 

 bad fire down at Old Forge.* I have no idea how the fire started, 

 nor can find out anything about it. I have now 60 men on the 

 ground night and day. We are doing all we can and will save every 

 rod of timber possible. I go around the fire line myself and direct 

 the men where the work is needed most. I was not on the ground 

 this morning, but I put my son in charge in my absence. He was 

 up day before yesterday, night before last, and all day yesterday with- 

 out sleep or rest. The men have worked in heat and smoke. I think 

 I can handle affairs now. I have taken up blankets, put in boats, 

 tools and provisions. I haven't weighed out anything as yet be- 

 cause my time has been so much taken up. But I will make an offer 

 to board the men at $4 per week, to save the bother of weighing out 

 provisions. Now, another thing, how many hours is a day's work? 

 The men say eight hours. I don't know what you think about it, 

 but I am keeping the time by the hour. 



Mr. J. E. Roberts, district firewarden, Old Forge, Herkimer 

 county. The fire at Fulton Chain is not the same one when you were 

 here. Another one caught near the railroad and is burning on the 



* This letter was received the same day that the Governor placed funds at the disposal of the 

 Commission. The Superintendent notified Mr. Higby to hire all the men necessary to extinguish 

 this fire, which was on State land and was running in the direction of the Raquette Lake township. 

 The State has 100,000 acres of virgin forest land in a solid block where this fire occurred, but it 

 was completely extinguished before it burned a very large area. The fire was in Hamilton 

 county and there were no residents within several miles, except a few who were in a lumber 

 camp near Big Moose Lake. It could be fought only by sending men in from Herkimer county, 

 as the firewarden at Long Lake, the town in which it occurred, lived 36 miles away. 



W. F. F. 



