THE GIANTS OF THE FOREST AND THE MEN WHO SAFEGUARD THEM.
Photography by U. S. Forest Service.

U. S. SERVICE SERIES.

THE BOY WITH THE U. S. FORESTERS

BY FRANCIS ROLT-WHEELER

With Thirty-eight Illustrations from Photographs taken by the U. S. Forest Service

BOSTON

LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO.

1910

To My Son Roger's Friend

WILBUR UFFORD

PREFACE

Much of the wilderness is yet but little trod. Great stretches of virgin forest still remain within whose dim recesses nothing is changed since the days the Indians dwelt in them. The mystery and the adventure are not sped, the grandeur and the companionship still pulse among the glades, the "call of the wild" is an unceasing cry, and to that call the boy responds.

But if this impulse to return to the shelter of the wilds be still so strong, how greatly more intense does it become when we awaken to the fact that the forest needs our help even more than we need its sense of freedom. When we perceive that the fate of these great belts of untamed wilderness lies in the hands of a small group of men whose mastery is absolute, when first we realize that national benefits—great almost beyond the believing—are intrusted to these men, surely Desire and Duty leap to grip hands and pledge themselves to the service of the forests of our land. To breathe the magnificent spaces of the West, to reveal the wealth and beauty of our great primeval woods, to acclaim the worth of the men who administer them, and to show splendid possibilities to a lad of grit and initiative is the aim and purpose of

THE AUTHOR.

CONTENTS

1. ENTERING THE SERVICE
2. PUTTING A STOP TO GUN-PLAY
3. THE FIGHT IN THE COULEE
4. PICKING A LIVELY BRONCHO
5. A TUSSLE WITH A WILD-CAT
6. IN THE HEART OF THE FOREST
7. WILBUR IN HIS OWN CAMP
8. DOWNING A GIANT LUMBERJACK
9. A HARD FOE TO CONQUER
10. A FOURTH OF JULY PERIL
11. AMIDST A CATTLE STAMPEDE
12. ALMOST TRAMPLED TO DEATH
13. HOW THE FOREST WON A GREAT DOCTOR
14. A ROLLING CLOUD OF SMOKE
15. THE FOREST ABLAZE
16. IN THE MIDST OF A SEA OF FIRE

ILLUSTRATIONS

• The Giants of the Forest and the Men Who Safeguard Them
• A Forest Fire out of Control
• Good Forestry Management
• Bad Forestry Management
• The Tie-cutters' Boys
• Deforested and Washed Away
• As Bad as Anything in China
• How Young Forests are Destroyed
• Where Sheep are Allowed
• Cowboys at the Round-up
• Patrolling a Coyote Fence
• Reducing the Wolf Supply
• Where Ben and Mickey Burned the Brush
• The Cabin of the Old Ranger
• Stamping It