land, 47; fishermen and hunters, 16; from adjoining 

 town, 17; railroad locomotives, 29; other causes, 6; 

 unknown, 180. 



The number of persons who fought fire was 5,277. 



North Shore. 



An urgent appeal for help in fighting fires having been 

 received by me from the village of Hovland, about thirty 

 miles east of Grand Marais, Cook county, at my request 

 Mr. J. T. Black, chief engineer of the fire department of 

 Duluth, promptly organized a crew of forty men, who, with 

 proper supplies and under the charge of Captain C. W. Wil- 

 son, left Duluth on a steamboat September 13th and were 

 gone a full week. Finding they were not needed at 

 Hovland, they stopped at Lutsen, a point about twenty 

 miles west of Grand Marais, where they rendered effect- 

 ive service day and night. At the same time Adjutant 

 General Wood, on the U. S. Steamer Gopher, with a 

 detachment of Minnesota naval militia, was doing every- 

 thing possible for the relief of the settlers. Grand 

 Marais was one of the places most afflicted. 



The principal damage to standing timber by all the 

 fires was on the Pigeon River Indian reservation, com- 

 prising the eastern portion of Cook county, and which is 

 separated from Ontario by the Pigeon river. Mr. L. W. 

 Ayer, of Belle Prairie, an experienced and reliable 

 cruiser, who was employed by this office to visit the 

 burned regions and investigate the origin of the fires 

 and amount of damage done, reports that the total 

 timber loss by fire on the north shore, including the 

 Indian reservation, was $325,000. 



Further west, hundreds of people were engaged 

 successive days in fighting fire on the outskirts of Bovey, 

 Nashwauk, Hibbing and Virginia, which places, on ac- 

 count of high wind, were considered in danger. 



