2138 



ARBORETUM AND FUUTICETUM. 



PART III. 



trees, and grubbing up their roots ; but lie adds that the practice is highly in- 

 judicious, as, by these indiscriminate conflagrations, the land is not properly 

 cleared, and " a very strong and noxious plant, called the fireweed," springs 

 up every where, and exhausts the fertility of the soil. The appearance of a 

 burning forest is one of the most fearful and sui)lime objects that can be 

 imagined, and has been powerfully described by Cooper in The Pioneers, and 

 also by Gait in Lawric Tvdd. " The flames leap from tree to tree, and 

 winding up to their tops, throw out immense volumes of fire from thick 

 clouds of smoke, that hang over the burning mass, while the falling trees come 

 down with most tremendous crash." The following account of one of these 

 fires, which was more than usually destructive, is extracted from Mr. M'Gre- 

 gor's book : — "In October, 1825, upwards of a hundred miles of the coun- 

 try, on the north side of the Miramichi river, became a scene of the most 

 dreadful conflagration that has, perhaps, ever occurred in the history of the 

 world. In Europe we can scarcely form a conception of the fury and rapi- 

 dity with which the fires rage through the American forests during a dry hot 

 season, at which time the underwood, decayed vegetable substances, fallen 

 branches, bark, and withered trees, are as inflammable as a total aijscnce of 

 moisture can make them. When these tremendous fires are once in motion, 

 or at least when the flames extend over a few miles of the forest, the sur- 

 rounding air becomes highly rarefied, and the wind naturally increases it to a 

 hurricane. It a|)j)cars that the woods had been, on both sides of the north- 

 west branch, partially on fire for some time, but not to an alarming extent 

 until the II th of October, when it came to blow fiu'iously from the north- 

 west, and the inhabitants on the banks of the river were suddenly alarmed by 



