FISHERIES, GAME AND FORESTS. 



345 



Mr. E. H. Sturtevant, town of Fort Ann, Washington county, N. Y. : 



August 6, 1899. Number of acres burned over, six hundred. Standing timber 

 destroyed, $80. Location, Buck mountain, Lake George. The timber burned was of 

 small growth and inaccessible. On Wednesday, the 2d, a young man by the name of Ben- 

 ton from our town was on the west side of Lake George, from where he saw lightning 

 strike on Buck mountain and set fire to a stump ; but as it was raining at the time he sup- 

 posed it was extinguished. On Sunday, the 6th, Mr. Gyler of Andrews' camp saw a party 

 of campers go up the mountain and start a fire to cook a chowder, after which they came 

 away leaving this cooking fire burning. The same day Mr. Brown of the Hundred Island 

 House went up and put it out. He felt sure that he had extinguished it. It broke out 

 again, and by Tuesday morning it was raging ; whereupon a party of ten men left the 

 Hundred Island House in a steamer and went to the fire. I went there also with ten men 

 from Haytown's school house. That night I went for men, and on Wednesday morning 

 got a gang of seven from Wiggins' ore bed, and sent them to the fire. I saw the smoke of 

 this fire seventeen miles away and got there Tuesday morning. We had it under control 

 Wednesday, and on Thursday the rain came. 



The proprietor of the Hundred Island House, who sent all his help to fight this fire, 

 makes no charge for their services, nor for the use of the little steamer which carried them 

 down the lake. 



August 28, 1899. This fire burned over about a half acre. I found it burning in the 

 camp on the shore of the pond. Three men were fishing at the north end. I waited until 

 they came in and then asked their names. Two of- them gave me counterfeit names, but 

 they promised to put out the fire. 



Mr. G. M. Swan, town of Chester, Warren county, N. Y. : 



August 7, 1899. This fire occurred on the farm of Cornelius Murphy, about two and 

 one-half miles from Chester village. All pasture and meadow. Some city children were 

 seen on the place picking berries that day, and it is claimed that they started the fire. 



August 28, 1899. The fire, which burned over one acre, was started by lightning, as 

 claimed by some. No one saw the lightning, but a tree that stood near where the fire 

 started was shattered. 



Mr. James A. Balcom, town of Hague, Warren county, N. Y. : 



August n, 1899. Number of acres, five hundred and seventy-five; standing timber 

 destroyed, $800. Twenty-three men ordered out by District Firewarden Edmund West. 

 Total number of days work, eighty-four and six-tenths. This is the same fire that District 

 Firewarden Potter fought, Mr. Potter working on the south and east side, while Mr. West 

 was on the north and west side. The fire originated in the town of Horicon, and I hear 

 that it was the work of an incendiary. In my judgment nothing near a correct estimate 

 of the value of the standing timber destroyed can be given until next summer when the 

 trees are in leaf. 



August 18, 1899. Number of acres burned, fifteen. This fire was located in a spruce 

 thicket (small spruce), and I don't think any person competent to say how much of said 

 small spruce is killed with the fire. Any estimate at this time would be mere guess work. 



