54 OUR NATIONAL FORESTS 



messenger to reach the Forest Ranger, and in the 

 meantime the fire would continue to rage and 

 spread. 



In the absence of a telephone system a signal 

 system is used. The one probably used the most 

 in forest fire protection work is the heliograph, by 

 which code messages are sent from one point to 

 another by means of a series of light flashes on a 

 mirror. The light of the sun is used and the flashes 

 are made by the opening and closing of a shutter 

 in front of the mirror. Very often these helio- 

 graph stations are located on mountain tops in the 

 midst of extremely inaccessible country. Where 

 there are a number of these stations at least one is 

 connected by telephone to the Forest Supervisor's 

 office. When the Forest officer at the telephone 

 gets a heliograph message about a certain fire he 

 immediately telephones the news directly to the 

 Forest Ranger in whose district the fire is located, 

 or if he does not happen to be in direct communi- 

 cation with the Forest Ranger he notifies the Forest 

 Supervisor, who then notifies the officer concerned. 

 Of course it is all prearranged who should be noti- 

 fied in case a fire is reported to the heliograph man. 



Unfortunately it has been found that this system 



