1921-22 DEPARTMENT OF LANDS AND FOQESTS 253 



season in connection with the regular survey work, location being reported on 

 return to the base, to the local rangers or by wire to the district chief. From 

 the season's flying experience, it would appear that aerial detection of fire is 

 both more reliable and more efficient than any other system as yet devised. 

 On the score of reliability, records of the field unit of three machines, with 

 which the past season's work was carried on, show that it would have been 

 possible throughout the season to provide a daily patrol of at least one machine 

 capable of covering a two hundred mile beat. This is the more creditable when 

 it is considered that flight was continued without engine overhaul up to, in the 

 case of one, and far past in the case of the other two machines, the time limit 

 for the engines prescribed by the makers. Chances of uncertain service, such 

 as the above and the numerous other ways, need not be incurred, in the case 

 of machines operating from a permanent base, with an almost certain gain in 

 dependability. 



As regards the efficiency of the aerial observer to spot fire, it is believed 

 that this is entirely a question of personnel. Fires can be seen clearly and 

 for great distances. They can be seen despite ground-haze, which from above 

 is scarcely perceptible, and can be located by anyone provided with, and cap- 

 able of reading, a good map. In addition to merely observing and locating 

 fire, however, the aerial observer can also, and should be required, to report 

 on its size and situation with respect to local fire barriers and progress during 

 fighting — information which cannot be supplied by any other system of detec- 

 tion, except by great good fortune, and which is of immense value to the proper 

 planning of fire fighting operations. 



Suppression, which is at once the essential and most difficult part of any 

 fire protection system, was successfully carried out by the use of air craft on 

 two occasions. In one instance, this entailed the transportation and supplying 

 of a total of six men for a distance of seventy-five miles by air; fire fighting was 

 carried on for eight days. The second fire occurred forty miles from the base 

 and was fought by four men taken in and supplied by air; for four days. Al- 

 though opportunity for further work of this kind was abundant and could 

 readily have been undertaken, it was considered inadvisable to do so in view 

 of the fact that the unit was not organized for such work and that it would inter- 

 fere too much with the regular survey work. The above results should indicate, 

 however, that aerial transportation can be used for fire suppression. 



The importance of aerial transportation, and the extent to which it could 

 be used for forest fire suppression in this Province can only be grasped after 

 a consideration of the large number of suitable ready-made landing grounds for 

 sea-planes and flying boats which are scattered throughout almost the whole 

 fire district; and the further consideration that successful development along 

 this line would immediately place such points in the same category as road 

 and railway heads, from which it would be possible to obtain men and supplies 

 at short notice in case of any emergency. 



9. Summary. — (a) Approximately 6,400,000 acres, lying in general between 

 the G.T.P. Railway and the Albany - Lac Seul waterway, were mapped as 

 composition types by sketch; about one-half of this was further classified into 

 size classes. 



Some 325,000 acres, in scattered strips, were covered by aerial photography. 



Twenty-one special landings were made for sample plot work in typical 

 forest stands. 



Throughout the season forest fire detection was carried on, secondarily to 



