1912 AND FISHERIES COMMISSION. 143 



tion and great gangs of men, a large percentage of whom are foreigners 

 barely able to speak the language of the country and with little or no 

 personal stake in it, are employed throughout the summer months, 

 building them. All around them is forest. Fires are built for 

 this purpose or that; tobacco in all its various forms is 

 smoked; matches are continually being struck and carelessly thrown 

 away; while the incipient fire resulting from any of these causes may 

 easily pass unobserved or unchecked by those in authority who cannot 

 be everywhere at once and have other important matters to attend to. 

 On these construction lines, however, perhaps the most dangerous of 

 all agents in the matter of fire Ik the " Jumper," the man who not being 

 over fond of work joins a camp for a few days and then betakes himself 

 leisurely to the next along the right of way. These individuals are as 

 a rule not only shiftless but careless. Walking along the right of way 

 they smoke their cigarettes in enjoyment of the beautiful surroundings, 

 tossing the ends aside into bracken with the utmost unconcern of pos- 

 sible eventualities, or else, wearying, perhaps, of the monotony of soli- 

 tude, they build themselves a little smudge to keep off the flies while 

 they sleep or to boil a pan of tea, and after thus refreshing themselves 

 move on again, not thinking to stamp out the smudge, but leaving it to 

 take care of itself. Then again prospectors are here, there and every- 

 where throughout the forests, lighting their camp fires and smudges, 

 smoking their pipes, practically beyond supervision of government offi- 

 cials ; the Indian is on the trail for one purpose or another, unconcerned 

 and somewhat fatalistic as to consequences from fires left burning; the 

 tourist and pleasure seeker, both citizen and visitor, all too frequently 

 thoughtless in action, are in the woods in considerable numbers pre- 

 cisely at those periods of the year when conditions are most favourable 

 for a forest conflagration; and finally, the dw^ellers in the forest, the 

 settlers who have built their little homes therein, are not altogether 

 beyond reproach in the matter of maintaining precautions against fire 

 either when clearing land or when burning waste material. In addi- 

 tion it must also be recorded that, if dame rumor is not altogether at 

 sea, there are certain individuals so debased and shameless that they 

 will deliberately set fire to certain forest areas in order to force the 

 hands of the government in the matter of throwing the limits open to 

 the lumberman. Small wonder, then, when all these things are consid- 

 ered, that forest fires should occur yearly. Indeed, the only marvel 

 would appear to be that they are not more frequent or more serious. 



So great is the potential harm that may arise out of an inadvertent 

 act or temporary carelessness in the woods that it would seem only just 

 that wherever the origin of a forest fire can be traced to an individual, 

 that individual should be made to suffer punishments and penalties 

 commensurate at least with the damage wrought. There can seldom 

 be any excuse for allowing a fire to start. If a man were to set fire to 

 a government building or even to a building owned by some private 

 12 F.C. 



