88 I HE IRRIGATION AGE. 



to make the biggest fire possible. If fuel is handy he will have a fire 

 big enough to barbecue an ox if only a cup of tea is needed. And at 

 night though the evening be warm he must have sheets of name 

 streaming up among the trees, because it looks so cheerful, or so 

 wierd as his wife tells him. To expect a man to put out such a fire is 

 demanding considerable of human nature in these days of economiz- 

 ing energy. He has had enough to do to make it. The small fire, if 

 he should accidently make one, he leaves to be blown about by the 

 rising .wind because he thinks it wont do much harm. That is, when 

 he thinks at all. I have seen many such a one stand right beside a 

 fire and empty the coffee pot off on one side and all the dishwater, etc., 

 when it was just as easy to put it on the fire. 



Among the older hunters and fisherman there is more reckless- 

 ness than stupidity. Too many of them simply do not care. They 

 will make a fire in dry leaves, pine needles or dead grass when the 

 sandy bed of some little dry run is just as convenient, and are quite 

 as much opposed to wasting energy in putting it out as the most 

 recent formation of a tenderfoot. 



What shall we do with these classes? Nothing in the way of 

 reformation is possible. The only way is to keep them entirely out of 

 those sections where the danger is greatest as in some of our southern 

 mountains. My interest in hunting and fishing is quite as great as it 

 is in irrigation so that what I say on this snbject is at least sincere. 

 I shall expect to do considerable of both yet as I have in the past and 

 I believe not only that I will lose nothing by having a portion of the 

 forest reserve closed against me that I will actually be the gainer. 

 The question of refuges in which game shall at all times of the year 

 be absolutely safe against all disturbance is already up among those 

 interested in game preservation. In many parts of the country, and 

 probably in all, the establishment of large places of refuge will soon 

 make game so much more plenty outside that the loss of the territory 

 will be more than make up. In southern California our best hunting 

 is not at all in the higher mountains where the forest laws must be 

 applied but in the lower hills. To these the higher ones would serve 

 as a nursery to increase the supply. It is not so much the case with 

 .fishing but the same principle applies to a great extent. The greatest 

 drain upon our streams is by those who ascend to the small tributaries 

 high up in the hills where they can catch fingerling easily by divert- 

 ing the stream and various other tricks when they do not bite well. 

 While it is not necessary to exclude hunters and fishermen from all 

 the forest reserve, I still believe it would be no bad thing if it were 

 done and no one allowed to camp there for any purpose except under 

 the direct supervision of a forest ranger of that section. In that case 

 his name, business, movements, etc., could all be registered, all his. 



