66 



THE FORESTER. 



Marcl 



roundings, but more likely it would have 

 been left in any situation regardless of 

 possible consequences. 



The second fire was by the roadside, 

 well up on the slope of a spur of the range, 

 in untouched forest. I saw it early in the 

 morning and judged it to have been started 

 twenty-four hours previously. It was 

 smouldering in a slowly increasing circle 

 about a stump against which the fire had 

 been kindled; the circle was then about 

 twelve feet in diameter. A few hours 

 more and it would have reached some fal- 

 len trees and found food for starting a 

 grand conflagration. 



In this forest there was practically no 

 undergrowth. The thin soil was covered 

 with a thick layer of pine needles with im- 

 bedded dead branches and the accumulated 

 debris of many years, all in various stages 

 of decomposition. The surface had a 

 crisp dryness, very apparent as we tramped 

 over it, but just below, the mass was 

 somewhat moist. The condition of this 

 surface covering was well suited for hold- 

 ing fire. Once started it could easily burn 

 for an indefinite time until it reached some 

 tangle of windfalls, and there become 

 actively destructive. 



The third fire had been kindled on the 

 edge of a sawdust pile near an abandoned 

 mill. On one side of the road stood the 

 mill building, stable, and several smaller 

 structures that had been occupied by the 

 mill hands. On the other side and crossing 

 the road to the mill was the sawdust in 

 which were imbedded old logs, slabs and 

 edgings. Adjoining the sawdust and ex- 

 tending some distance beyond it was a 

 narrow belt of timber that had been felled, 

 partly by the ax and partly by wind ; the 

 whole formed a tangled mass. Just be- 

 yond and all about the mill stood green 

 timber, and among the trees were the 

 abundant remains of destructive lumber- 

 ing. Outside this invaded belt the virgin 

 forest extended for miles without a break. 



The fire at the time of our arrival had 

 not spread far, but may have been burning 

 for three or four days. It had attacked 

 an old half-rotten log which was deeply 

 imbedded, and along this it had penetrated 

 several feet beneath the surface. There 



was some evidence of an attempt to extii 

 guish the fire by water, whether by the pe 

 sons who started it or by others passing b 

 fore us, we could not tell. But it sti 

 burned slowly and needed only sun ar 

 wind to dry out the path and hasten tl 

 progress of the fire toward the mass < 

 dead trees which would furnish all th 

 would be necessary to start a destructr 

 conflagration. An hour and a half w; 

 spent in shoveling out the burning sav 

 dust, cutting off the log below the ignite 

 portion, and in carrying water to entire 

 extinguish the fire. 



To build a fire at all in such a situatic 

 was nothing less than gross carelessnes 

 but to depart and leave it burning mi 

 well be called criminal. Two warnii 

 notices were posted in conspicuous plac 

 within plain sight of the point where tl 

 fire was left. These notices were as pr 

 vided by the State Legislature, in sectic 

 one of an act entitled "An act directir 

 the erection of notices to extinguish can: 

 fires." Approved March 28, 1885. Th< 

 read as follows : 



" Camp fires must be totally exti 

 guished before breaking camp, under pe: 

 alty of not to exceed one month's impriso 

 ment, or one hundred dollars fine, or bot: 

 as provided by law. County Co mini 

 sioners." 



The problem of how to guard tl 

 mountain forests from the possible resul 

 of such acts of carelessness as I have me 

 tioned is a difficult one. The best trac 

 of timber are remote from settlement 

 Thev are traversed frequently by huntir 

 and pleasure parties which often consist i 

 thoughtless young people who, with i 

 intention of being malicious, may by car 

 lessness start fires that work destruction 

 much valuable forest. 



The great need of protection for the r 

 maining forests is forcibly impressed c 

 any one who rides over the burned region 

 and the manner of affording this prote 

 tion is a subject well worthy of serioi 

 consideration, and one that must soc 

 force itself upon the people for some d 

 cided action. 



C. S. CHANDALL. 

 Fort Collins, Colo. 



