1 86 North American Forests and Forestry 



no such crime was ever brought home to arjybody 

 in a legal proceeding. 



The means which European foresters employ to 

 protect the property under their care against fire 

 are chiefly the following : in the first place, every 

 forest is penetrated, in addition to the main roads, 

 by a network of open lanes, so-called " fire-rides." 

 These are kept bare, not merely of trees and un- 

 derbrush, but also, as far as possible, of the ranker 

 vegetation of grass and herbage, and especially all 

 dry and inflammable debris. If a fire gets a start, 

 it will soon come to one of these rides, where it is 

 easily checked. One not familiar with the ways of 

 forest fires is likely to be surprised at the idea that 

 comparatively narrow roads and lanes can check 

 conflagrations which, at other times, destroy whole 

 forests and villages. But they must remember 

 what was said above, that by far the greatest num- 

 ber of forest fires are not so-called top fires, which 

 envelop large trees with flame and spread from 

 crown to crown. They are generally surface fires, 

 that merely consume the dry litter, dead branches, 

 withered grass, and such stuff on the forest floor. 

 The moment such fires come to a bare earth road, 

 or even to a lane covered with sparse, short, and 

 little inflammable vegetation, they stop for want of 

 fuel. After a fire has once attained great dimen- 

 sions, and especially where it has developed into a 

 top fire, roads and lanes are no longer of the least 

 benefit. For great fires, by sending currents of 

 hot air upward, create strong winds by the inrush 



