FOREST commissioner's REPORT. 39 



More worthy of note are the conditions which made this great 

 lire possible. The season of 1825 was doubtless a dry one, so that 

 not merely the brush of the woodlands furnished food for the fire, 

 but the leaves and vegetable soil of the forest floor. At this time 

 came on the gale of October 7th. Old settlers testify graphically 

 to its severity. The fire, they say, travelled as fast as a horse an! 

 the air was filled with flying brands. Thus the fire was spread from 

 many centers, and fused into a great body of too great volume and 

 power to he fought. It overpowered the settlers. In Cambridge 

 and Kipley numerous sets of buildings were burnt, and scattered 

 buildings were destroyed elsewhere. Then when the gale went 

 down, from the extent of the fire it was beyond control. It main- 

 tained itself in spite of the settlers, while spreading north and east, 

 it ravaged the timberlands unhindered for weeks. The history of 

 the fire in a word is this — small and seemingly insignificant fires 

 were allowed to continue in a dry time Then a sudden gale sprung 

 up which spread the fire from these centers and fused them into a 

 great body of fire which was beyond all human control. The 

 warning to be derived from these facts is not likely to be mistaken. 

 It is far less likely that it will be heeded 



Without a map the bounds of this great fire can be only roughly 

 given. Passing across the towns of Shirley and Elliottsville,the fire on 

 the north took in Katahdin Iron Works and township Long A, passing 

 eastward to cross the W^est Branch of the Penobscot below the Twin 

 lakes. Leaving unharmed the district east of Seboois and Endless 

 lakes, it swept down to the main Penobscot in the town of Chester, 

 burning more or less through all the towns along the west side of 

 the river down to the line of Old Town. On the west the fire line 

 takes in parts of Kingsbury, Mayfield and Wellington, touches 

 Harmony on its northeast corner and includes all of Cambridge and 

 Ripley. Owiug to the large areas of settled land along the Piscata- 

 quis, the fire in that region burnt very irregularly. It reached, 

 however, in places into the third board of towns below the river. 

 Making no deduction for water areas, nor for small oases too that 

 no doubt make up in the aggregate a consid^-rable area, the terri- 

 tory coveied by this great fire is estimated at about 1,300 square 

 miles 



In tracing the outlines of this fire of 182.T we are brought in con- 

 tact with two other great fires of early times, the bounds of which 

 have likewise been approximately ascertained. From Mr. Fred J. 



