REPOET OF THE No. 3 



and white pine of the Crown and spruce and jack pine, the property of the pulp 

 concessionaire. The quantity of pine was offered for sale and is being cut this 

 winter. It is expected between two and three million feet will have to be cut. It 

 was impossible to establish the origin of the fire or bring it home to any particular 

 person. There are hundreds of miners and prospectors moving about, and work- 

 ing in this Reserve, using fire for cooking, for warmth, smudges for flies and smok- 

 ing. We have a large staff of fire rangers on duty in this Reserve under two 

 efficient superintendents and they are believed to give good service. Considering 

 how careless the average man is in the use of fire it is not to be wondered at that 

 we had fires in this immense reserve during last summer, which was the driest and 

 most prolific of forest fires we have had for years. In the Nepigon Reserve we had 

 a few fires, but no large quantity of timber was damaged. ' In the Quetico Reserve 

 in Rainy River District no fires were reported. In the Eastern Reserve there were 

 no serious fires, nor were there any in the Thunder Cape Reserve. In the case of 

 these Reserves, as on the licensed territory and that in the Crown, the great value 

 of the fire ranging system is the prevention of forest fires by warning everybody 

 to be careful in the use of fire, by rangers moving about and letting people know they 

 are on the spot prepared to enforce the Jaw, and generally inculcating a spirit of care 

 and respect for the law on the part of every one with whom they come in contact. 

 They are able to suppress fires before they attain any large proportion and put out 

 smouldering fire after a rain. After a forest fire attains considerable proportions it 

 is impossible to control it. In Forest Reserves the rangers have to move in canoes 

 to some extent, but a good deal of their work is done on land. In selecting the rang- 

 ing staff every effort is made to ascertain if the applicant for the position is a good 

 canoe man, and if he is he is selected for Reserve work. It sometimes occurs that a 

 ranger is not as good a canoe man as those experts he comes in contact with and 

 criticism arises. It also happens that rangers, like other individuals, are careless, or 

 the victims of accident, and frequently criticism without a knowledge of the circum- 

 stances is unfair and unjust. In some cases rangers have lost their tents and 

 blankets by fire. The loss has been made the subject of investigation, and if it 

 appears the loss was the result of carelessness or ignorance the ranger is charged up 

 with the loss whatever it may be. If, on the other hand, it has occurred through an 

 accident that might have happened to any one, nothing is done beyond cautioning 

 the ranger to be careful. The Department obtains a report each season on the 

 capacity of each man, and if any man is careless or is no use he is not again 

 employed. 



On the lines of railway where rangers are employed the territory is divided up 

 into ten-mile beats and placed in charge of two rangers. They camp on the centre 

 of the ten-mile beat and every day one goes five miles in one direction and back at 

 night, the other does the same in the other direction. They post up proclamations, 

 interview the foremen of the work and tell them what is required to be done and 

 request them to caution their men to be careful in the use of fire, etc. Passing 

 along the work every day they can soon judge whether proper precautions are 

 observed, and call the foreman's attention to any neglect, and if necessary put the 

 law in motion to punish the offender. Rangers have been put on the T. & IN". 0. in 

 this way, on the Canadian Pacific and the Canadian Northern where necessary and 

 Port Arthur Junction Railway, and these railway companies have aided the rangers 

 in every way possible, and paid for them at the end of the season. Until quite 

 recently the great pulpwood forest lying on the height of land and extending on 

 both sides has been quite safe from danger, there being no dangerous element there. 



