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. Further- 

 more, the amount of office work necessary to systematic busi- 

 ness requires the presence of a ranger in his headquarters a 

 number of days each month, even when fires may not be prob- 

 able. 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 pa- 

 trolman is placed in charge of his beat, with a definite head- 

 quarters, 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 es- 

 pecially with the people. He must seek for future reference, 

 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 sup- 

 plied with tents, axes, shovels, mattocks, and other simple 

 equipment necessary to living and working in the forest. For 

 this they receipt to the ranger responsible for it, and are in 

 turn held responsible by him for its care. Where there are 

 good water routes in their beats, patrolmen are furnished 

 canoes. In the latter case, or where horses are used, sets of 

 fire-fighting tools are carried. 



Patrolmen are endowed with police powers to enforce the 

 forest law. They are empowered to summon aid in case of 

 fire, to demand the observance by the people of the require- 

 ments of the law, to make arrests when necessary; and are 

 responsible to the rangers in carrying out the details of their 

 work. Their principal duty is, of course, the prevention and 

 control of fires. In this connection, they post warning no- 

 tices and explain the law and the aims of the forest service 



16 



