.y_>i 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



that stood in the road, relief measures were under way. 



With ap propriate gOr, train-load Of i>rovisions and 

 equipment was sent from North I'.av on Sunday morning 

 and every town beyond the devastated area hurried motor 

 can with doctors and nurses to render service. 



By such means the hopelessness of the situation was 

 a good deal relieved. Private and governmental agencies 

 carried in food and clothing, and burying parties removed 

 the scores of coffins collected about the railway tracks and 

 roads. Light rains, commencing Sunday morning, spread 

 across the 

 blackened 

 country and, 

 increasing in 

 volume, gave 

 the people 

 their first hint 

 of cheer. Hun- 

 dreds had, of 

 necessity, 

 taken train for 

 Southern On- 

 tario; others 

 were in hos- 

 pitals of the 

 railway towns 

 beyond the 

 danger zone, 

 and a luckless 

 remnant lo- 

 cated them- 

 selves in the 

 tem|>orary vil- 

 lages of tents 



until the way should open for a fresh start at farming. 



Government aid was immediately assured to the ex- 

 tent of partial rehabilitation of the sufferers, special 

 agents were appointed, and provision made for housing 

 and food supplies. To advise the Government regarding 

 a permanent policy on all matters connected with the 

 restoration of working conditions, a business committee 

 was convened by the Minister of Lands and Forests and 

 will investigate and report. 



Such is the general outline of a catastrophe burdened 

 with the most terrible and poignant incidents and relieved. 



too, by plentiful tales of heroism. It was the second 

 severe tire within five years in the same part of Ontario. 

 The penalty of the Porcupine fire of 1911 was 84 lives 

 and covered an area very much less than that of the 1916 

 disaster. In neither case was the forest growth of large 

 size or maximum value, although the future will be in a 

 better position to estimate exactly what the sacrifice of 

 forest growth amounted to. The service rendered in the 

 clearance of agricultural lands (where a slash had already 

 heen made) is naturally looked upon as a godsend. No 



minimizing 

 of the fearful 

 toll of life, 

 however, is 

 possible and 

 Northern 

 Ontario re- 

 gards its latest 

 experience as 

 too over- 

 whelming to 

 be weighed 

 against real or 

 pretended 

 " benefits." 



The "Clay 

 Belt " fire of 

 July. 1916, will 

 rank as one of 

 the greatest 

 forest disasters 

 in American 

 history. The 

 Hinckley 

 fire in Minnesota, 1894, was responsible for 418 lives 

 and the burning over of 160,000 acres. The famous 

 Peshtigo fire in Wisconsin, 1871, killed 1500 and dev- 

 astated 1,200,000 acres. In 1825 occurred the Mir- 

 amichi fire in New Brunswick and Maine, with a loss 

 of 160 lives and damage of 3,000,000 acres. The Clay 

 Belt fire in Ontario, in point of lives lost, ranks third 

 in the records of the continent, although the sacrifice 

 of merchantable timber (under present conditions and 

 present market values) is by no means a noteworthy 

 distinction. 



Photograph ty British and Colonial Preis, Toronto. 



ANOTHER SCENE WHICH WITNESSED TRAGEDY 



View from Nushka showing cut up the track where 54 people lost their lives. Only four people escaped from this town. 

 Of those who took refuge in the narrow cut everyone was smothered by the heat and the gases from the fire. 



The Cause of the Fire And Future Prevention 



By Clyde 

 Forester, Commission of C 



THE terrible loss of life, and of property as well, in 

 the recent forest fires in Northern < hitario, must 

 cause thinking people to take stock of the situa- 

 tion, to try to understand how such a thing could happen, 

 and to determine what measures must be taken to prevent 

 a recurrence. 



The explanation of the disaster is, to a certain extent, 

 to be found in the character of the country itself. In the 

 autumn of 1912 Dr. Fernow made a brief investigation, 



Leavitt 



'onservation of Canada 



for the Commission of Conservation, of forest conditions 

 along the National Transcontinental Railway for a dis- 

 tance of about 200 miles east and west of Cochrane, as 

 well as south from this point, along the Temiskaming 

 and Northern Ontario Railway. Dr. Fernow discusses, 

 therefore, in his report, the situation in the very section 

 devastated by the recent fires. He reported that much 

 of the country is more or less swampy, due to the under- 

 lying stiff clay. As might be expected from this, the 



