FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 1 29 



Mr. J. H. Higby, Big Moose, Herkimer County. — We have a bad fire at Sisters 

 Ponds, in Township 41. I put on about sixty men yesterday and some thirty more 

 last night. The belt is about half a mile wide by one mile long, but it is burning 

 like a furnace. The smoke and heat are intense, but we have held it on the west and 

 south. I have got another tough proposition. The men say that I have no right 

 to order them to go into Hamilton County to fight fire. If you will do so, please 

 send me a written order that I may show them. That is not all: there is a lot 

 of men that refuse to go, not knowing where the pay is to come from. You know 

 there is no provision for the pay before next winter. You see, I am handicapped 

 all around. I am sending in seven men that I will pay myself, and the other 

 hotels are sending in some men also. These floating chaps demand their pay at 

 once, but I am unable to advance the money. Mr. Parsons, the town firewarden, 

 cannot send in men because he has a bad fire down at Old Forge.* I have no 

 idea how the fire started, nor can I find out anything about it. I have now sixty 

 men on the ground night and day. We are doing all we can and will save every rod 

 of timber possible. I go around the fire line myself and direct the men where the 

 work is needed most. I was not on the ground this morning, but I put my son in 

 charge in my absence. He was up day before yesterday, night before last, and 

 all day yesterday, without sleep or rest. The men have worked in heat and smoke. 

 I think I can handle affairs now. I have taken up blankets and put in boats, 

 tools and provisions. I haven't weighed out anything as yet because my time has 

 been so much taken up. But I will make an offer to board the men at four dollars 

 per week to save the bother of weighing out provisions. Now, another thing: how 

 many hours is a day's work? The men say eight hours. I don't know what you 

 think about it, but I am keeping the time by the hour. 



Mr. J. E. Roberts, Old Forge, Herkimer County. — The fire at Fulton Chain is 

 not the same as when you were here. Another one caught near the railroad and 

 is burning on the east side of the track below Fulton Chain, but I have it under 

 control. I have sixty men at the Big Moose fire, and have notified the warden in 

 Long Lake, as it is outside of this town by three miles. The fire at Beaver River 

 is burning slowly, but Bullock is doing good work and keeping it from spreading. 

 It is so far through the woods to the fire on Watson's East Triangle that I have 

 asked Miller to take care of it from the town of Croghan. A new fire started on 

 the land of the Adirondack League Club, caused by a camp fire. It burned 

 fiercely, but to-night I have it down in good shape. Mr. De Camp is very anxious to 



*This letter was received the same day that the Governor placed funds at the disposal of the 

 Commission. The Superintendent notified Mr. Higby to hire all the men necessary to extinguish 

 this fire, which was on State land and was running in the direction of the Raquette Lake Township. 

 The State has 100,000 acres of virgin forest land in a solid block where this fire occurred, but 

 it was completely extinguished before it burned a very large area. The fire was in Hamilton 

 County and there were no residents within several miles, except a few who were in a lumber camp 

 near Big Moose Lake. It could be fought only by sending men in from Herkimer County, as the 

 firewarden at Long Lake, the town in which it occurred, lived thirty-six miles away. — W. F. F. 



