WATCHING AND POLICE. 419 



forest for a great distance round. The life of a fire patrol is soli- 

 tary enough and devoid of the smallest amenities which make life 

 endurable ; they should therefore be located by twos at the com- 

 mon point \vheuce their beats start in opposite directions. In some 

 cases, as when traces and roads cross one another, it will be possi- 

 ble to locate three and even four men at one and the same station. 



Where water is scarce or at a prohibitive distance from a station, 

 a well should be sunk, if the water-bearing stratum is not too far 

 below the surface. When costly wells have to be sunk, the eco- 

 nomy of putting several men together becomes obvious. 



In. forests where squatter villages exist, the services of the squat- 

 ters, under the responsibility of the headmen, should be enlisted 

 for patrol work. These services may be secured for some slight 

 privileges entailing no loss of revenue or harm to the forest, or in 

 consideration of a small sum of money or of trifling presents in 

 case of successful fire-conservancy. This system has been adopted 

 with singular success in Berar, where the Author has known an 

 unpaid squatter evince as much concern on a merely glowing match 

 being dropped in the middle of a perfectly clear foot-path as the 

 forest officer himself might have felt if he saw a flaming on 

 thrown in the midst of dry grass. 



One of the most important duties of the patrol establishment is 

 to overcome, either unaided or with the help of other men, confla- 

 grations that it has unfortunately been impossible to prevent. 

 When the grass is short and is not everywhere quite dry and the 

 air is cool enough, the fire may be beaten out with brooms ; other- 

 wise counterfires must be lit from the nearest base lines so as to 

 circumscribe the conflagration on every side on which it can 

 spread. 



When it is decided to beat out the fire, it should be attacked by 

 one or several parties according to its extent and the length of fire 

 to be put out. Each party, as soon as it has commenced operations, 

 should divide itself into two sections, one moving off to the right, 

 the other to the left, and care must be taken that the fire does 

 not re-kindle at any point where it has once been beaten out. If 

 the conflagration is small enough to be put out by a single party, 

 it should be attacked at the middle point of its wiudstruck edge, 

 so that the extinction is completed by the two sections of the 

 party joining hands somewhere near the middle point of its lee 

 edge. To adopt any other plan of attack would oblige the men to 

 face a roaring mass of advancing flames, thereby not only exposing 

 them to extreme discomfort, but also rendering their efforts more 



