38 FOREST COMMISSIONER'S REPORT. 



'The most severe and extensive calamity that ever befell this 

 county was the great fire of 1825. Previously the annual rain fall 

 had been sufficient to secure good crops, and to prevent extensive 

 conflagrations. But in August and September of that year no rain 

 fell, and a severe drought extensively prevailed. The crops had 

 grown and ripened. By the beginning of October, the wells were 

 without water, the small mill streams had failed, the brooks ceased 

 to flow and the fish gathered in the deep pools, or lay dead upon 

 their dry, stony beds. Much of the cleared land contained decay- 

 ing stumps, and was enclosed by log fences, while the stubble 

 upon the grain and mowing fields was thick and rank, and all as 

 dry as tinder. Still those who were clearing up new land, in their 

 eagerness to burn up the fallen growth, set fires as fearlessly as 

 ever. And these fires did not go out, but lingered and smouldered 

 still. 



"In the evening of October 7th, after a still, smoky day, a violent 

 gale arose from the north and northwest, fanning these smouldering 

 fires into a furious and rushing blaze. In the wood-lands the 

 flames rolled on in solid column, while the wind scattered the sparks 

 and blazing fragments like chaff, lighting up stumps, fences and 

 often the dry stubble." 



Everybody, the writer continues, was awake. Fences were torn 

 down, water carried, and back fires set. The night was the wild- 

 est 111 the experience of most who witnessed it The uext morning, 

 however, the wind subsided and peiil to life and farm property 

 ceased. But smoke hung over the country dense enough to sicken 

 cattle and great enough in volume to be seen outside the state. 

 The fire hung in the bogs and tiinberlands, and it was only some 

 weeks later, when the heavy rains of the fall came down, that it 

 was finally quenched. 



Mr. Loring's account agrees perfectly with information received 

 from other eye witnesses of the fire. As to the origin of the fire 

 and the cause of its severity there is little doubt that his account 

 furnishes the true explanation. Clearing fires were probably the 

 center of the conflagration. Proof of this is the fact that the fiie 

 sprung up in so many places at once. It was in several towns the 

 same night, and men found it all about them when they turned out 

 to fight it. So strongly were the}' impressed by this feature of it, 

 and so impossible was it either to quench or curb, th .t the fire was 

 attributed in the minds of the superstitious to a supernatural origin. 

 Men thought the fire rained down. 



