FISHERIES, GAME AND FORESTS. 44I 



when only one party remained in the field until the snow in December made farther 

 progress impracticable. 



Besides the supervision of the survey and the other lines of work detailed before, 

 the most important feature of the three-quarter year's administration was the fight- 

 ing- of forest fires. 



*& 



The equipment has been kept within the immediate necessities, and consists 

 so far, besides surveying instruments, largely of camp outfit which was needed for 

 the survey and will always be needed in logging and planting operations. Two pairs 

 of horses were purchased after it became apparent that even without logging opera- 

 tions the required horse hire was much more expensive than the keeping of teams. 

 A smithy and the necessary logging and planting tools, wagons, sleds, etc., were 

 added, but as soon as logging operations begin this equipment will have to be con- 

 siderably enlarged. 



Forest Fires. 



These fires, very unusually, occurred in the month of August, as a result of the 

 long continued drought, which also reduced the rivers and brooks to the lowest stage 

 known, and finally even wilted the leaves of the trees in the forest, notably of 

 birches, young as well as old. 



Fires broke out in various places, and while, no doubt, carelessness of hunters, 

 surveyors and campers, with smudges, matches, etc., was usually the immediate 

 cause, at least four of these fires could, with reasonable assurance, be traced to light- 

 ning. Patrols were kept up during the dangerous season, the estimators and survey- 

 ors also being especially instructed to keep watch as they came from and returned to 

 work. 



Most of the fires were soon discovered and put out before appreciable damage 

 was caused, although entailing considerable expense on account of the difficulty of 

 surely extinguishing fire in the duff which covers the soil. Here the fire would, to 

 all appearances, be dead and yet break out again after a day or so. Much experience 

 was gained as to the character of fire under different conditions, and the means of 

 combating it. 



On the ridges covered with old hardwoods, the danger is, as a rule, small, the fire 

 burning slowly in the duff; if discovered in time — and this is not always as easy as 

 it would appear, even if the smoke is visible — one or two men with spades can 

 trench around the spot and confine the fire to the trenched area, when the spot need 



