THREE-QUARTERS OF THE WAY 103 



You cannot fight a forest fire like a fire in a city 

 block. There is no chain of permanent roads and 

 water hydrants to act as the goal of a flying fire 

 engine. There is little anyone can do with a fire 

 once under good headway, except perhaps to clear a 

 protective strip by pick and shovel, or, taking fire's 

 own weapons, to burn in advance of its path and 

 confine it to hastily proscribed limits. Such an 

 operation, moreover, requires not only eflicient 

 leadership and quick thinking, but an emergency 

 force of hundreds of men. 



Prevention is the cheapest form of cure. If a fire 

 is discovered before it gains headway a compar- 

 atively small gang can often extinguish it by beating 

 or by smothering with sand and earth. Forest pro- 

 tection, therefore, requires chiefly a highly organ- 

 ized system of continuous watching to observe the 

 first tiny trace of smoke. For this purpose the 

 United States Forest Service and several of our 

 state forestry departments have developed a system 

 of mountain observation posts or specially built 

 watch towers where a guard or lookout is contin- 

 ually on duty. Aerial observation by planes 

 equipped with wireless outfits or with parachutes 

 for dropping messages has also been valuable, par- 

 ticularly as regards the more distant and less acces- 

 sible regions where permanent posts have not as 



