102 NINTH REPORT OF THE 



April and May of every year, when the trees and undergrowth are bare, the mass 

 of dead leaves, stumps and fallen tree trunks are exposed to the sun and drying 

 action of the wind, rendering them highly inflammable and ready to burst into 

 flames wherever a spark may fall or a camp fire be carelessly left burning. 



No rain, except slight local showers, fell in the Adirondack region from April 

 fourth to June eleventh. The month of May was the driest in seventy-seven 

 years — since 1826. In Albany the rainfall was only fifteen one hundredths of an 

 inch, and it was still less in Northern New York. Combined with the lack of rain 

 there was an unusually high temperature, the month of May showing an accumu- 

 lated excess above the normal of eighty-nine degrees. On May sixth and nineteenth 

 the temperature at Saranac Lake was in the eighties. On the twenty-seventh the 

 mercury stood at eighty-five degrees, with a strong south wind blowing; and on 

 June sixth and seventh it reached over ninety degrees in the shade. 



In the early spring this year, soon after the ground was free from snow, 

 several small fires occurred; but as usual in other years these were quickly extin- 

 guished by the firewardens and their men before the flames had attained any 

 headway or done any damage. In the latter part of April forest fires broke out 

 with alarming frequency along the lines of the New York Central, the Chateaugay, 

 the New York and Ottawa, and the Saranac and Lake Placid Railroads. 



At first the firewardens extinguished these railroad fires wherever they 

 appeared, but the locomotives continued to throw sparks and start fresh ones 

 faster than the men could attend to them. The dead leaves, bushes, undergrowth, 

 stumps, logs and leafless trees became so dry that- it was only by the utmost exertion, 

 combined with skillful, experienced methods, any one fire could be controlled. 

 The conditions were such that incipient fires sprang up in the wake of nearly 

 every railroad train. The line of the New York Central, from Fulton Chain to 

 Mountain View, was bordered with smoke and flames, except on the eight-mile 

 stretch through the private preserve of Dr. W. Seward Webb, where a large 

 number of patrols were employed at his expense to follow each train, night or 

 day, and extinguish the locomotive sparks that fell along the road. 



A question may arise here: Why did not the firewardens do the same? But 

 the law defining their duties does not permit them to employ men until a fire is 

 seen; it makes no provision for patrolling, or for the prevention of fires. Never- 

 theless, when it became evident that patrolling was absolutely necessary to save 

 the remaining forest in certain localities, orders were issued to watch the railroads 

 at these exposed places, after which few new fires started along the tracks, and 

 the larger gangs of men were employed in fighting those which were already 

 burning:. 



