and Assist visit each district as often as is possible, to advise 

 with the ranger concerning district affairs, much discretion- 

 ary power is of necessity left to the latter. 



A ranger's work is administrative to a large extent. Every 

 ranger has a territory, directly under his supervision, larger 

 than most of the counties in the state. Most of the summer 

 routine work of a district is of necessity left to the patrolmen. 

 In time of bad fires, rangers are expected and instructed to 

 remain quite closely in their headquarters; this, in order that 

 they may keep in touch with affairs in all portions of their 

 district. Should a ranger leave headquarters to go to a cer- 

 tain place outside for any length of time, there would be dan- 

 ger of fire in some other portion, where his advice or his 

 presence might be absolutely necessary, with no opportunity 

 to reach him. Of course, with a large or dangerous fire, a 

 ranger will go to it and organize the fire-fighting. His duty 

 in such a case is to put a good man in charge of that fire, 

 then return to his headquarters in readiness for another. 

 Furthermore, the amount of office work necessary to syste- 

 matic business requires the presence of a ranger in his head- 

 quarters a number of days each month, even when fires may 

 not be probable. In fact, while a ranger goes about the 

 country as much as possible, there are certain important 

 features of his work which can be best attended to only at 

 headquarters. 



About May 1st or whenever the fire danger begins, the 

 patrolman is placed in charge of his beat, with a definite 

 headquarters, or station, where he could be reached by mail at 

 stated intervals. 



Immediately upon taking the field, it is required of every 

 patrolman that he acquaint himself with his territory, and 

 especially with the people. He must seek for future refer- 

 ence, the location of trails and open regions all the means 

 of rapid travel and advantageous lines of defense in case of 

 fire. Many patrolmen work out definite patrol routes, which 

 they cover as often as necessary in the performance of their 

 chief duty guarding against the occurrence of fires. They 

 are supplied with tents, axes, shovels, mattocks, and other 

 simple equipment necessary to living and working in the for- 



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