1917-18 depaktmp:xt of lands, forests and mines. 



145 



Canadian Pacific Railway, the Nemegos subdivision with 35 fires, Mactier with 

 28, North Bay with 14, and Parry Sound with 10 fires, accounted for over three- 

 quarters of the 112 Canadian Pacific fires. 



Other Causes. — After the railways the careless camper was the cause of the 

 next largest number of fires, namely, 9.7 per cent, of the total (including Indians), 

 as against 14 per cent, last season. 



Land clearing operations by settlers caused 78 fires or 8.1 per cent, of the 

 total. Of these, 50 fires were outside, and 28 fires inside, the permit area. Of 

 the latter, 17 were cases of fires set out under permit getting beyond control, and 

 11 were cases of violations of the Permit Regulations, half of them instances of 



2— Forest planting on sand lands at the Provincial Forest Station, Norfolk County, 1909. 



misunderstanding. Prosecutions were conducted in 5 cases and convictions 

 secured in all. 



Forty fires were connected with logging operations. These included care- 

 lessness of river drivers, cleaning up around camps, and defective logging loco- 

 motives. 



Area Burned. — Forty per cent, of all fires did not exceed one-quarter acre 

 in size, and nearly three-quarters of them did not get beyond 5 acres in extent. 



The total area burned over was 30,172 acres, classified thus: 



Timbered land, 4.757 acres (15.8 per cent.) ; cut-over land with some timber 

 left, 11,174 acres (37.0 per cent.) ; young growth, 7,100 acres (23.5 per cent.) ; 

 barren and grass land, 7,141 acres (23.7 per cent.) It must again be pointed 

 out that cut-over land and young growth, as representing the. forest land that 

 has been logged over with the resultant hazardous slash, constituted 60 per cent, 

 of the total burned over area. 



