blazing we have him arrested and clapped into 
prison. Let the same fire fiend burn down a million 
dollar forest and we make little effort to apprehend 
him. Why? Because we are so old-fashioned as 
not to see in a burning forest a share of our personal 
property. 
Instead of saying: ‘Why doesn’t some one put a 
stop to this firing of our common goods—the for¬ 
ests?’ suppose we get down to business and say: 
‘Let me make up my mind to do everything possible 
to save the woodlands from fire.’ If all the Boy 
Scouts in Canada will say that and live up to it, we 
shall consider the problem more than half solved. 
How the Fires Start. 
How do forest fires start; by lightning? 
Not one in fifty cases. 
By ‘spontaneous combustion?’ 
This phrase is handy for some fires but it means 
little in accounting for forest losses. The combus¬ 
tion comes usually from a neglected camp fire, or 
the clearing fires of settlers on the edge of growing 
timber, or a lighted cigarette or cigar or hot pipe 
ashes or locomotives. Human hands and human 
heads supply the spark, without which few of our 
great forests would ever be abandoned to flames. 
“How can I prevent a forest fire?” 
There is no better answer than is contained in 
these rules. Veteran hunters and fishermen, the 
best mountain climbers and guides make a point of 
carrying out such sensible prohibitions because they 
know for one thing that carelessness with fire is a 
sign of the amateur, and there are no good times for 
anybody in a wrecked forest. 
23 
