ACTUAL FIRING OF THE TRACES. 445 



(e) Trace running more or less horizontally. Such a trace, if 

 it is not meant to flank a much frequented road, will always be a 

 boundary one. Here, as in the plains, the firing should progress 

 against the wind, the risk of disaster in case the fire got out of 

 hand, especially if this happened on the lower side of the trace, 

 being very much greater than on level ground. If a road or path 

 does not already exist along one edge of the trace, a narrow path, 

 constituting a permanent check line, should be made. When the 

 fire is to be controlled on only one side, all that has to be done is 

 to run a line of fire along the road or path, a new length of it 

 being lit only when the preceding one has burnt far away enough 

 for there to be no danger of its setting ablaze the grass on the 

 other side. If the road or path is broad and the forest to be pro- 

 tected lies above it, then the grass along the lower edge should be 

 lit as lapidly as possible and two and even more fire-brand men 

 may be employed for the purpose. When the slopes both above 

 and below the trace are to be protected, a second guide line must 

 be prepared, and the fire along the upper of the two lines should 

 always be kept well in advance of the other. Obviously no inter- 

 mediate line of fire will be required. The second guide line may 

 also be of a permanent character in the shape of a narrow path, 

 or it may be prepared by simply clearing away the grass and the 

 fallen leaves, twigs, &c. strewing the ground ; local conditions will 

 determine of which kind it should be. As a rule, the party along 

 the upper guide line should be the stronger of the two. 



IV. SECOND AND SUBSEQUENT BURNINGS. The first firino- has 



O 



often to be undertaken when the grass on long sections of a trace 

 is still green and does not hence burn except along the edges 

 where the cushion of dry cut grass has been formed. More fre- 

 quently the green grass stands in more or less large patches 

 especially in the midst of bushy growth. It is evident that all 

 incompletely cleared traces should be rendered effective as early 

 as possible by means of a second burning. The urgency of this 

 operation will be in proportion to the length of the unburnt sec- 

 tion, to the size, number and contiguity of the patches (a few of 

 them standing sufficiently near to each other might form an easy 

 line for fire-communication between the grass on either side of the 

 trace), and to the inflammability of the grass both inside and out- 

 side the trace. It will also depend on the quantity of dry leaves 

 shed by the trees. These dry leaves are first quite sufficient to 

 connect the patches of standing grass with each other and with 

 the grass outside the trace, and later in the season become abund- 



