!T< IRIAL 



499 



blowing the -moldering -paik- to ;i 

 raging ocean of fin- that engulfed and 

 dev< Hired evcrx thing in its path. The 

 Canadian 1'acitic Railroad i- reported 

 t i have' lo-t -everal million ties. worth 

 more than a million dollar-, 

 while the loss in -landing tim- 

 ber, in crop- de-tn>yed. in th 

 de-truction of building and 

 improvement-, etc.. ran the 

 total n]) to an estimate of 

 over 85.000.000. ("are would 

 have prevented the fire; care 

 in the first place would have 

 prevented its starting at all. 

 Hunters or campers, it is be- 

 lieved, left the embers of 

 their campfire uncovered and 

 unextingutshed, and nobody 

 seems to have thought it 

 worth while to put out the 

 small fire that later developed 

 into a holocaust. 



The fires on the Ameri- 

 can side of the border, in 

 Montana, while not nearly so ex- 

 tensive or destructive, still were by 

 no means trifling blazes. These fires. 



and were tinalK controlled with a min- 

 'iiivjm of ]o-- to the timber. The -ame 

 wa- true in tin- ca-e of the Sierra Na- 

 tional Fore.-t tii Threatening a' 

 lir-t. they were fought hard and -\ 



Fire o weeping an An/ >nj Mountain 



however \\erc fought from the start, 

 i inginatmg, it i- believed, by rea- MI 

 of dead tree- bung -truck by light- 

 ning, the tire- -pread rapidly, but for- 

 esl rangers and guard- were ru-hed in. 

 th.e tire- were fought -\-teniatically. 



Fire in an Arizona Canyon 



matically. and were put out within a 



-hurt time. 



Fires of .this latter origin cannot be 

 guarded against. Lightning 

 rods for every tree in a fore-: 

 would be rather an expensive 

 proposition, but carelcsMie-- 

 011 the part of those u-ing a 

 fore-t can be prevented, to a 

 large degree National for- 

 e-t- are po-tcd at frequent 

 interval- with con-picuou- 

 -igns \\aruing against the 

 danger- of careless handling 

 of tire-: and tire-fighting i- 

 a part of the ' curriculum" of 

 fore-t officer-. NO bla/.e. no 

 matter how trifling in appear- 

 ance at the beginning, i- 

 allowed to gain head\v.'.\. it 

 it i- po--ible to reach the 

 in time ; and if the bla/e can- 

 not be kept from increasing 

 in volume, through inability 



of the fore-t force to reach it in time. 



Ceaseless effort i- exerted by every 



available hand -often for thirly--ix. or 

 n -ixty. hour- at a -t retch to ex- 



tingui-h it. The annal- of the field 



force of the Fore-t Service contain in- 



