170 INJURIES TO MARITIME PINE. 



at the nests with young ones ; and it is used for sounding the earth 

 and finding out runs." 



Sect. V. — Destructive Ravages hy Forest Fires. 



M. Eloi Samanos, in his volume entitled Traitd de la Culture du 

 Pin Maritime, to which reference has been made, remarks : " One of 

 the greatest scourges to which a pine-wood plantation is exposed is 

 beyond contradiction that of fire ; it reaches a height with such 

 facility, and spreads with such fearful rapidity. 



" There is preserved in our district (apparently that of Cape Breton) 

 the memory of a fire which devastated our forests, on an extent of 

 from five and twenty to thirty kilometres; such occurrences may well 

 sufifice to create a most reasonable fear in proprietors, and to urge 

 upon them the adoption of the greatest measures of precaution. 



" Such occurrences are almost always occasioned by workmen 

 who light fires in the forest without seeing to these being completely 

 extinguished ; they may also be occasioned by storms falling upon a 

 forest, as happened in the imperial domain of Solferiuo. 



" One precautionary measure against fire, adopted by some care- 

 ful foresters, consists in separating resinous woods by planting broad 

 bands of deciduous trees between them. 



" This has been carried out by the intelligent engineer, M, 

 Crouzet, in the imperial domains of Solferino, under his direction, in 

 which he has plantations of deciduous trees dividing the woods of 

 maritime pines. By this means the fury of the fire at least is 

 diminished, and it becomes easy to circumscribe and confine its 

 ravages. 



"Besides this, t^^cvo is omp mf^ans employed in our district to combat 

 conflagrations, known under the name of contre-feu. It is this : when 

 the inhabitants have been congregated on the scene of the disaster, 

 and they judge the extinction of the fire by direct means impossible, 

 they go in the direction in which the fire is advancing, and at some 

 distance from it, having armed themselves with well clothed pine 

 branches, they form in line, and burning there the thorns, heaths, or 

 other dry woods between them and the fire they prevent this fire 

 from spreading in the different directions and smother it ; and this 

 being done, the conflagration, on advancing to that place, finds no food 

 for its continuation, and often dies out." 



To rely entirely on such means, M. Samanos considers inexpedient, 

 and he says : " Plantations of deciduous trees ought also to be em- 



