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exists when they drive it down streams, in. the spring and often in summer. They light 

 little fires wherever they stop on the banks of the rivers, to dry their wet clothes and 

 warm themselves, to enliven their few minutes of rest, or, when the season gets more ad- 

 vanced, to smoke away the flies. Before the fire is fairly blazing, a shout is heard, and 

 as the canoe, or the crib, or the loose logs dart past, our friends take a flying leap upon 

 them, and down they go with the swift current, leaving the fire to itself. 



" It Ought to be impressed upon the foremen, as one of their most important duties, 

 that they must look after their men carefully in the maJiter of fires. As the lumberm jn i 

 themselves have recommended in their conventions, careful men ought to be selected in 

 each drive to see that the fires are lighted and put out with every precaution. 



" Fishermen are more dangerous than hunters. It is not their fault, and I do not 

 mean to cast any aspersion on their character ; for when we see them exercise, in the 

 pursuit of their avocation, so much patience and coolness, we are bound to credit them 

 with the sister qualities of caution and prudence ; it is the season during which fishing is 

 allowed (and during which only it can be allowed), the driest part of the summer, that 

 makes it S(f dangerous. 



" In granting leases for the right of fishing rivers, it would be advisable for the 

 Government to increase the stringency of their regulations, so as to cause the lessees to 

 be very careful how they themselves, their friends, and those under them, light and put 

 out their fires. 



"The precautions indicated in the Quebec Act, already alluded to, 34 Vict., cap. 19, 

 especially those in section 4, for lighting and putting out of fires in the woods, are very 

 practical and eflfective, and ought to be adopted and enforced everywhere. They order a 

 careful selection of the locality where there is the smallest quantity of vegetable matter, 

 dead wood, branches, brushwood, dry leaves, or resinous trees ; the clearing away of 

 those inflammable materials, within a radius of four feet from the fire to be made, and the 

 total extinguishing of the fire before quitting the place. Any honest, conscientious man, 

 with a head on his shoulders, ought to take those precautions, and be as careful of the 

 property of others as he would be of his own. There are times in the long droughts of 

 summer, when a man is just as guilty who throws down a lighted match in the woods, as 

 if he threw it in a barn full of hay. 



■ " The enforcement of regulations made for diminishing the danger of fire during the 

 fishing season would not entail such expenditure as might be expected. The wood 

 rangers and fishery inspectors would not have to watch over every square acre of forest, 

 an army could not do that. An officer, well up to his work, would soon become 

 acquainted with every good fishing pool where fishermen are likely to go, and would keep 

 an eye on those spots ; in his rounds he might watch, warn, and arrest careless people, if 

 necessary." 



Concerning the over-rapid cutting, in the face of the absence of reproduction, in our 

 pine territories, Mr. Joly says : — 



" The lumbermen have indicated the remedy for over-production, but have not been 

 able to apply it. They can only apply it successfully with the help of the Provincial 

 Governments. I respectfully maintain that it is the right and the duty of those Govern- 

 ments to interfere ; the right, because the timber belongs to the Province — the duty, be- 

 cause they are answerable for every stick of that timber. 



" Each lumberman is ready to admit that he (or rather his neighbour) is cutting too 

 much timber, and that he would make more profit with a lesser quantity. It is bad 

 enough that so much money should be wasted away in cutting down timber for no good j 

 but if there was an inexhaustible supply of timber on the Crown lands, the Government, 

 reoeivinc a larger amount of timber dues than it might otherwise, would not be likely to 

 interfere to protect the lumberman against himself. 



" But our forests are getting rapidly exhausted, and their produce sacrificed ; it is a 

 loss for Canada and for the lumbermen. It is full time for the Governments to interfere. 

 Will they do it, and can they do it, in justice ? 



" Of course, the first result of a decrease in the production of timber, in so far as the 

 Government was concerned, would be a corresponding decrease in the Crown lands re- 



