SHERLOCK HOLMES OF THE FORESTS 



73 



and location of the transgressors. In these detective 

 activities they make use of water glass casts as well 

 as impressions made by the use of dental plaster, plas- 

 ter of Paris and ordinary cement in making models of the 

 foot tracks of both men and beasts. They carefully col- 

 lect and preserve all articles found around the abandoned 



FROM HEEL TRACK TO JAIL 



Very faint was the impression of this heel mark near where 

 a forest fire was started but it was sufficient to give the forest 

 detectives a trail which they followed until they captured tlie 

 man who had started the fire. 



camp fire or point where the forest fire started, which, 

 subsequently may be examined for finger prints. They 

 search for unburned matches, the charred remains of 

 man-started fires, and other mediums used in kindling 

 the flame. 



One party of tourists who started a disastrous forest 

 fire through carelessness with a campfire were tracked, 

 caught and punished by means of a laundry mark on a 

 handkerchief. The handkerchief was found near the 

 outbreak of the fire. After several day's investigation, 

 a laundry was located in a neighboring city that identified 

 the mark on the handkerchief and furnished the home 

 address of the culprits. Scraps from discarded envel- 

 opes and letters have led to other convictions. Frequent- 

 ly, peculiarities of horse hoof conformation or unusual 

 method of shoeing as well as extraordinary human foot 

 tracks or automobile tracks have aided the forest guardi- 

 ans in capturing ofTenders who have caused forest fires. 

 Not infrequently, disgruntled stockmen whose flocks or 

 herds have been driven from the grazing lands in the 



National Forests because of trespass seek to wreak re- 

 venge on the federal foresters by starting a series of 

 fires. Occasionally, some of these fires are so cleverly 

 arranged and set off, that it takes weeks of earnest effort 

 and investigation to track the culprits to their lairs. 



Three years ago in one of the California forests, 15 

 incendiary fires broke out the same day at different parts 

 of the tirnberlands. The forest lookouts reported that 

 they were certain that no human beings had been in the 

 vicinity of the spots where the flames developed that 

 day. After painstaking and detailed search, fire remnants 

 were found near the outbreak of one of the fires which 

 indicated that an ingenuous method of set-up had been de- 

 vised and followed in the starting of some of these blazes. 

 A glass lens was found which was so mounted in a wire 



THIS CONVICTED A STOCKMAN 



A plaster cast of a hoof print of a horse found near the spot 

 where a forest fire started resulted in a malicious minded stock- 

 man who set fire to a California forest being sent to jail. 



frame that terminated in a long arm that it could be stuck 

 in the ground in direct line with a pile of matches and dry 

 woodland debris. The glass was so arranged that when 

 the sun reached a certain point in its course, its rays 

 would be intensified and centralized by passage through 

 the lens and concentrated on the matches. Ultimately, the 

 heat would be sufficient to ignite the matches and sur- 

 rounding tinder. This novel method of starting a forest 

 fire enabled the instigator to establish a complete alibi 

 by being many miles from the scene of fire outbreak 

 when the blaze began. This set-up was so arranged that 

 the fire would not be started until perhaps 24 hours after 

 the snare was laid. .; ; 



