ILLUSTRATED GUIDE. 137 



This order will vary according to the special service 

 to which certain woods are aflFected ; still, the table gives 

 a good idea of the value of each from an ordinary point 

 of view. 



CHAPTEE II. 



FIRES IN THE FOREST. 



Fires occur so frequently in the bush, they destroy 

 every year such a vast quantity of timber, and lay waste 

 Budh an extent of woodlands, that I have thought it 

 right to devote a special chapter to this scourge, which 

 menaces us with the rapid destruction of our forest- 

 wealth. 



■ Causes of bush-fires. — ^The principal causes of bush-fires 

 are three in number : fires lighted by colonists in clear- 

 ing,the land ; fires made by hunters, tourists, and trayel- 

 lers, for their daily wants ; and those lighted by sparks 

 from locomotives, which traverse now-a-days every part 

 of the country, not excluding the forests. There may be 

 some secondary causey, difficult of detection, but I pass 

 them over, and proceed to study with the reader how to 

 put an end to the fires set up by the three causes I have 

 mentioned. 



Means of preventing bush-fires. — The means of preven- 

 tion of the first class are those that should be applied to 

 the forest properly so called. For a fire is propagated 

 with more or less ease, according to the state in which 

 the district where it starts is found. Suppose, foi 

 example, that the fire begins in a timber-limit cut over 

 the preceding year, the ground still encumbered with 

 chips, shavings, branches, etc. In these debris the flames 

 find fresh support, which excites them, and quickly 

 renders them uncontrollable. I may be told that for this 



