FIRE PROTECTION 275 



acquire a pecuniary interest in fire protection, but risks 

 from incendiarism from people who grudge giving up 

 a grazing -ground during the fire season would be 

 minimised, and the men living close at hand would be 

 employed year after year, and would thus become 

 expert workmen. They would also be handy for 

 putting out any fire which got into the forest. 



Fernandez l gives the strength of a firing party, 

 when the trace is on level ground and the fire is to be 

 controlled from one side only, as from six to ten men, 

 when conditions are not unfavourable, and from ten to 

 twenty men when the fire has to be prevented from 

 spreading on both sides of the lines. In the places 

 where my own experience has been gained, this number 

 was usually considered too small, and about double the 

 number of men stated above were employed. 



Before starting the firing, each man should be 

 provided with a broom to beat out the flames and to 

 sweep burning embers or leaves from the guide-line on 

 to the trace. In India it has been found that fronds 

 of the Dwarf Date-palm (Phoenix acaulis and P. 

 farinosa), tied together in a bunch of a size to be 

 comfortably held in the hand, give the best results, as 

 they last a long time. If such or similar fronds are not 

 obtainable, stiff wiry twigs, bearing leaves which do not 

 easily come off, should be employed ; but even in this 

 case the brooms soon get battered, and one or two men 

 will have to be employed in making new ones to re- 

 place those which have become useless. Men also 

 usually hold in their other hand a bunch of leafy. twigs, 

 which they hold before their faces while beating out 

 the flames to screen them against their scorching heat. 

 If running streams or wells are not frequent along the 

 line of work, provision must also be made for a supply 

 of drinking water, for the work soon gives the men a 

 parching thirst. 



On arriving at the point from whence the trace is to 

 be fired, the men arrange themselves along the guide- 



1 Op. cit. p. 466. 



