ILLUSTRATED &UIDE. ' 139 



ready to feed the fires when once started, and the bush- 

 fires would be diminished in number by one-half. The 

 governments of the several provinces are alone able to 

 bring about the result, by inserting a clause enforcing 

 the means of preventing bush-fires in the contracts for 

 the concession of timber-limits. 



.And how had we best set about clearing away the 

 wastage of the cut from the forest ? There are two ways ; 

 both easy enough of application. As to resinous trees, 

 it will suffice to have, in addition to the usual shanty, 

 men, a gang of hands specially charged with the duty 

 of piling up in heaps, in the clearings, the branches 

 and chips, to be systematically burned in the winter. 

 Resinous-wood is easily got rid of in this fashion. For 

 other trees, the wastage can be arranged so as to be floated 

 in spring down the rivers along the sides of which the 

 operations are conducted. In order to avoid the blocks 

 that the wastage might produce in the river-beds, the 

 managers of the drive should be enjoined to watch its 

 descent at the same time and as carefully as they watch 

 that of the logs, until deep water is reached. Proprietors 

 of firewood- lands, too, should be careful to clear away 

 the wastage from their woods when their neighbours 

 are clearing their bush-land. 



The following are the means of prevention applicable 

 to direct causes of fires : settlers, and others, should be for. 

 bidden to burn their brush from the first June to the first 

 October : there is really no advantage in burning during 

 the interval. All other fires should be strictly prohibited, 

 except those lit by travellers of all kinds for their daily 

 needs ; and these men should be forbidden to make fires 

 except on carefully cleared spots ; they should be obliged 

 to watch the fires day and night, and to extinguish them 

 to the last spark before leaving the place. Every head 



