1312 Canadian Forestry Journal, September, 1917 



harm by uprooting stumps, grazing cattle on the young growth and firing 

 the hillsides. The effect of such action was seen ,n the rivers, which became 

 torrential during the flood season and shrank or dried up in the hot weather. 



In the Central Provinces, it cannot be said that any wholesale denu- 

 dation of forests has taken p ace, indeed, in some places the forests have 

 improved rather than deteriorated. The same may be said of the Presi- 

 dency of Madras. In accordance with these facts, the flow of the rivers 

 and streams is equable. In the Punjab, the landslips, violent floods in the 

 rivers, and the washing away of all cultivated soil in the Pabbi Range, the 

 Hoshiarpur Chaos, the Siwaliks, the lower Himalayas and the Salt Range 

 are doubtless due to the denudation of forest growth. 



It can therefore be said generally that in most Provinces no serious 

 damage to the flow of rivers has taken place, and no great injury has been 

 done to cultivation. There are, however, local exceptions, and much dam- 

 age has been done in the Punjab, in Bengal and Assam. Where damage 

 was acknowledged, it was on the whole admitted to be due to forest denu- 

 dation which changes the flow of the streams and accentuates their torren- 

 tial character. 



It may therefore be said that the measures of Forest Conservancy adopt- 

 ed by the Government of India during the last 50 years have entirely sat- 

 isfied the climatic and hydrographic requirements of the country, and have 

 resulted in the preservation of a sufficient area of forests, so that no wide- 

 spread damage arising from the destruction of forest growth has occurred. 

 This is chiefly due to the formation of reserved ann protected forests in the 

 large catchment basins and if, as has been said above, inundations and floods 

 have occurred in certain districts, these are due to the measures for forest 

 protection not yet having been definitely enforced in these parts of the coun- 

 try. 



Disastrous Fires from Trifling Causes 



A man dropped a lighted match inch of inflammable ground expanded 



on the shore of Kalamalka Lake, into fifteen miles of ruin. 

 British Columbia, on July 8th last. In the Spruce Valley fire of British 



Within an hour a hot fire was racing Columbia of the same month, eleven 



through the underbrush. For three men lost their lives, most of them 



weeks after that there raged a series tortured to death as they struggled 



of forest fires, defying the organized over the mountain tops. The fuse 



efforts of hundreds of men. to that disaster was supplied by a 



At one time, 26 fire fighters were small piece of lighted tobacco care- 

 ringed about with flames while their lessly thrown on the grassy floor of 

 relatives, shut off from them and a tent. 



helpless to aid, awaited news in terror- Four out of five tragic holocausts 



ized suspense. Only after severe could be avoided if every Canadian 



suffering from exhaustion, thirst and camper and fisherman kept vigilant 



hunger did the band of workers force watch on his own pair of hands, and 



their way through to safety. every settler kept a tight rein on his 



That experience is a big price to clearing fires. It does not cost five 



pay for one person's foolish act in cents or five minutes to put out a 



handling matches in a forest. The camp fire or a cigarette or a match, 



court fined the careless man $50 but but it costs the people of Canada 



that does not help the province to four or five million dollars a year to 



bear the enormous loss. partially overtake the timber damage 



One lighted match dropped on one caused by runaway flames. 



