180 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



ing for an ax to convert it into suitable 

 lengths; and water unlimited could be 

 melted from the snow banks which 

 lingered until the last' of July, although 

 it did seem a little odd to go for water 

 with a shovel in addition to a bucket. 

 Later the supply was packed in canvas 

 sacks from a spring about a mile away 

 in the timber. This was always a job 

 sought for by anyone coming up on 

 horseback; and thanks to the kindly 

 efforts of the guards who passed that 

 way, and my few visitors, it was always 

 easy to keep ths kettle boiling. So I 

 did not need a horse myself, there be- 

 ing, contrary to the general impression, 

 no patrol work in connection with look- 

 out duties, and my sister bringing up 

 my supplies and mail from home every 

 week, a distance of nine miles. 



'The daily duties of life on top were 

 small, merely consisting of an early 

 morning and late evening tramp of 

 half a mile to the point of the ridge where 

 the trees obscured the north view from 

 the cabin; and a constant watch on all 

 sides for a trace of smoke, a watch 

 which soon became a sort of instinct, 

 often awaking one in the night for a 

 look around; for I soon came to feel 

 that the lookout was, what one friend 

 so aptly called it, 'an ounce of preven- 

 tion.' Then there were the three 

 daily reports to the district headquar- 

 ters in town, to prove that everything 

 was serene, also the extra reports if they 

 were not; and a little, very little, house- 

 work to do. 



; ' Taking it all in all, not a very busy 

 day, as judged by modern standards of 

 rush, but a lookout's motto might well 

 be 'They also serve who only stand 

 and wait, ' and there was always the 

 great map spread out at one's feet to 

 study by new lights and shadows while 

 waiting, an 1 the ever busy phone with 

 its numerous calls, which must be kept 

 within hearing, so one could not wander 

 far. 



'That phone, with its gradually ex- 

 tending feelers through the district, 

 made me feel exactly like a big spider 

 in the center of a web, with the fires for 

 flies; and those fires were certainly 

 treated to exactly the speedy fate of 

 the other unworthy pests. Through 



all the days up to the close of the term 

 on November 6th, when a light fall of 

 snow put an end to all danger of fires, 

 there was an ever growing sense of re- 

 sponsibility which finally came to be 

 almost a feeling of proprietorship, re- 

 sulting in the desire to punish anyone 

 careless enough to set fires in my 

 dooryard. 



A TREE NEAR Miss DAGGETT'S CABIN WHICH 

 WAS STRUCK BY LLIGHTNING. 



It was the same stroke of lightning which caused 

 the lightning arresters to burn out and cut 

 Miss Daggett from telephone communication 

 with the main fire patrol station. 



'The utter dependence on the tele- 

 phone was brought vividly to my rnind 

 one afternoon, soon after my arrival, 

 when an extra heavy electrical storm 

 which broke close by caused one of the 

 lightning arresters on the outside of the 

 cabin to burn out, quite contrary to 

 precedent, and I was cut off from the 

 world till the next day, when someone 

 from the office came up in haste to find 

 out the cause of the silence and set 

 things aright. They often joke now 

 about expecting to have found me 

 hidden under some log for safety, but 

 it wasn't quite so funny then. 



"However, there seems to be very 

 little actual danger from these storms, 



