across portages which vary from a quarter to two miles in 

 length. 



The mode of travel was altogether by canoe and we made 

 from 10 to 20 miles a day, stopping at nature's grandest hos- 

 telries, our beds were of balsam boughs and our coverlets the 

 starry heavens unless the rain or mosquitoes made us seek 

 the shelter of the tent. 



My district was located in the northeastern part of this 

 state with headquarters at Ely, St. Louis County, near the 

 Canadian boundary line. It comprised Burnside Forest and 

 the adjacent lakes, an area of about 90 square miles and is 

 part of our great timber and mining region. In its original 

 state it was densely covered with Norway and white pine, 

 but the lumberman's ax and the forest fires have done their 

 deadly work so as to leave great portions of the country bar- 

 ren and rocky and unfit for agricultural purposes. And it 

 behooves the present and coming generation to stop this 

 waste and restore this vast region to its original wealth by 

 reforestation. 



The few settlers up there are mainly Finlanders, sturdy 

 pioneers of the Northland. Indians are still in this vicinity 

 but they give us no trouble. There are also a number of 

 lumber camps in operation and their people were always 

 friendly and willing to help us, and oftentimes we worked 

 together with their patrolmen in suppressing fires. As this 

 was a rather wet season, very few bad fires broke out. Those 

 that did were mostly ground and brush fires only occasionally 

 spreading to the tops of the trees. The ground fires were 

 usually extinguished by water which we carried in canvas 

 pails, as in most cases there was a good water chance. When 

 this was missing, we dug up earth and sand and smothered 

 the fires. But if it could not be controlled by these means we 

 would build a fire-break by clearing a strip of land of brush 

 and inflamable material and digging a trenth to prevent its 

 spread. If the fire should sweep through the tops of the trees 

 and things get dangerously hot, the saying is, "Run like hell, 

 and pray for rain." 



Campers and berrypickers gave us the most trouble by 

 their carelessness in looking after their camp fires. They 



10 



