44 C GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 



Sipi-wesk Lake, and on the Grass River to the junction of the west 

 branch at Burnt Lake. 



Forest Preservation. 



Up to 1878 the great region covered by this report had been annu- 

 ally devastated by forest fires, ranging over large areas and destroying 

 the timber in different localities from time to time, until, perhaps, 

 more than half of it is already swept away. Li that year I made a 

 point of calling the attention of the Indian chiefs and head men to this 

 great waste, and informed them that it was the wish of the Govern- 

 ment that the timber (which the Indians had not before considered of 

 any value) should not be thus destroyed, and requested them to make 

 their temporary fires on the beach or on bare rock, and to extinguish 

 their camp-fires in all cases before leaving. This they all promised to 

 attend to, and the result has been that during 1879 no forest fires, as 

 far as I could learn or observe myself, had occurred. The saving thus 

 effected is worth to the country many times more than the cost of our 

 explorations. 



