102 OUR VANISHING FORESTS 



destroys millions of dollars worth of property 

 through failure to extinguish his glowing embers, 

 and it is often even more difficult to catch the expert 

 firebug. To run down and make an example of all 

 such offenders would require the services of more 

 than one Sherlock Holmes, but occasionally our own 

 forest rangers have discovered in the ashes of a 

 ruined forest so minute a clue as a burning-glass, set 

 to kindle the fire when the responsible party was 



What forest fires cost. The left hand pile of money represents the 

 value of timber and property destroyed in the last five years by forest 

 fires. The second pile represents the profits which might be made in a 

 single year by various interests concerned in building and construction 

 if the wood now consumed by forest fires could be saved and put into 

 houses. The third pile represents what bankers and real estate men lose 

 every year as the indirect result of forest fire destruction. 



far away; and on that clue the guilty person has 

 been convicted. The scouts and Indians of our 

 childhood delight could recognize a moccasin print 

 In the sand and follow the owner to his death. It 

 may be less romantic to be able to trace the print of 

 a patch on an automobile tire, but it has been done, 

 and more of just such detective work Is needed. 



