Forest Fires 59 



ests, and It shoots sparks far up the steepest 

 grades where the fire can begin at once to climb. 



" In a recent dry season," says a Boston news- 

 paper, " one engine, on a trip from Provlncetown 

 to Boston, set over twenty fires; there was just a 

 little gap in the spark arrester." " But," con- 

 tinues the same paper, " be the past what it may, 

 the railroads are doing better. They are adopt- 

 ing more effective patterns of spark arrester and 

 of ash-pan. They urge the need of carefulness 

 upon their employees, not only upon the fire pa- 

 trols, ordinary and extra, but also upon station 

 agents and trainmen. The Boston and Maine 

 Railroad now maps every fire, and blackmarks the 

 engines reported in mischief." 



Though locomotive engines ignite most of the 

 fires which rage beside railway tracks, the sparks 

 which begin the trouble sometimes come from the 

 cars. Many blazes are started by lighted matches, 

 cigars, or cigarettes thrown out by careless pas- 

 sengers. Warnings are now posted in many rail- 

 way coaches. They should be made commands, 

 with penalties for people who disobey. 



The owners of land bordering on railroad 

 tracks are often surprisingly slow to aid in pre- 

 venting fire. Sometimes they Invite It. They 

 allow dead grass to thicken into tinder beds close 

 beside the rails, or. In cutting timber, they leave 

 the tops to dry within range of wind-blown sparks. 



Sometimes, when railroad companies offer to 



