DESTRUCTION BY FOREST FIRES. 171 



ployed amongst the precautions taken for the conservation of forests, 

 and it is impossible to do too much to make known and to introduce 

 such a measure." 



In accordance with this account of the contre-feu is the following 

 statement by M. Bartro, in an article on the maritime pine in the 

 Adour, a joarnal of Bayonne : 



" Resin-yielding- forests are extremely combustible. Their soil is 

 strewed with ferns, with brooms, and with dried leaves ; it is covered 

 with trunks of trees, which distil resin, drops of which are seen every- 

 where ; a single spark, or the wadding of a gun, may suffice to set 

 the country on fire. When this misfortune happens the tocsin is 

 sounded in the adjacent communes. The population arm themselves 

 with shovels and hatchets ; they march under the leadership of the 

 mayors, who direct the operations and compose a guard, the duty of 

 which is to work themselves and to prevent desertion by the other 

 workers. They note the wind under which the conflagration spreads, 

 and regulate their procedui-e accordingly. By this combination of 

 labours the fire finds itself encircled by the population of the diff'erent 

 communes, who proceed to extinguish it, and, unless the wind be 

 very strong, and carry the burning flakes behind the workers, in 

 which case they are veiy much exposed to be themselves surrounded 

 by the fire, they find it pretty easy to master it, and that they do 

 thus : 



" The workers, one after another, furnish themselves with green 

 and branching boughs ; they take their place at what is deemed a 

 proper distance in line in front of the advancing fire ; they set fire 

 to the ferns and other combustibles in front of them, w^hich they 

 extinguish, as they progressively advance toward the fire, by smiting 

 them with their green branches, and covering them with earth by 

 means of their shovels. This is what is called making a contre-feu 

 When the fire comes it finds no food, and it is forced to go out. This 

 is the only means of which use is made to stop the conflagration in 

 forests of resinous trees." 



Boitel, in reference to this, compares it to the horaoepathio treat- 

 ment of disease by physicians acting on the principle — Like cures Like 

 — it is fire extinguished by fire, and he goes on to say : 



" Forest fires would be less common if the police were less negli- 

 gent ; if herdsmen, shepherds, resin-collectors, and woodmen did not 

 take pleasure in lighting fires in the heart of the pignadas, or pine 



