FISHERIES, GAME AND FORESTS. 443 



tage — the dew and absence of wind being favorable to whip out the fire. During 

 the night more than one hundred men had been assembled, and it was hoped to end 

 the battle, although by this time more than 4 to 5 miles of front had to be defended. 



The continued heat and the variable strong winds, however, proved too inimical; 

 the fire could not be held in check along the entire line, and broke over the lines of 

 defense in various places, eating its way across the marsh into the surrounding tim- 

 ber. The fourth day was consumed in quenching single nuclei of fire to retard it and 

 in throwing up ditches a considerable distance away from the fire front, with the 

 expectation of stopping it in the hardwood ridges, where the winds are powerless. In 

 the afternoon the fire ran with such fury through the young timber surrounding the 

 marsh that the men, in places, had to run for their lives. That night, fortunately, a 

 heavy thunderstorm with abundant rain quenched the fire, although even such a 

 downpour could not quite extinguish it at all points, and it took over a week to 

 accomplish entire extinction. Altogether over 290 labor days were required in 

 fighting this fire. 



About nine hundred acres were burnt over, being mainly a useless marsh and an 

 old burn grown up during the last thirty years with aspen and white pine, a promis- 

 ing young crop, only a small amount of old timber being damaged. 



The Forest Preserve Board, by most judicious action, advanced the money to 

 pay for the fire fighting, which would otherwise have had to be recovered with much 

 delay from the towns, the total expense for all fires having been $1,035.00. 



This experience brought the valuable lesson that a strip of old timber is prob- 

 ably a better protection against dangerous fires than an open fire lane in which the 

 winds have access; that old snags and logs, especially of pine, are a great danger; 

 that large openings in which the wind can develop force are to be avoided ; that no 

 plantations should be made on these open clearings and burns without dividing them 

 at once by trenches, kept in condition, so as to limit eventual fires. 



By the law the protection of the College Forest, as far as fires and game pres- 

 ervation is concerned, lies with the Fisheries, Game and Forest Commission, who 

 appointed the superintendent of the College Forest as deputy fire warden, thereby 

 meeting the first requirement. 



Protection, however, is needed against the most prolific cause of forest fires — the 

 careless hunters. It will become necessary, simply for the sake of securing partial 

 protection against this cause, to restrict or prevent altogether the hunting, at least 

 in those parts which are most exposed and where plantations are made, since with- 

 out such protection the expenditure of money on these improvements would be 



entirely thrown away. 

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