36 GREAT LOSS OF PROPERTY. 



hurried into vessels and boats and scows, and eagerly 

 thrust off from the land. The lesser dread was forgotten 

 in the presence of the greater. But although so huge a 

 flame was raging, there was no light. Showers of ashes 

 and burned twigs, and still burning brands, and thick 

 smoke, filled the air ; and for two days afterwards, amid a 

 perfect calm, the darkness on the river was such that a 

 bell was kept tolling on each bank to indicate the site of 

 the ferry, that people might know where to steer to. 



The town of Chatham, on the opposite side of the 

 river, in a great measure escaped ; but the Nassau 

 Settlement, six miles behind it, was burned to the ground 

 the settlers only saving their lives by rolling them 

 selves in the river till the flame passed away. In many 

 streams, where the native woods still overhung them, the 

 water proved insufficient to preserve human life 5 and the 

 thousands of salmon and other fish found floating on 

 their surfaces showed how intense and penetrating the 

 heat must have been. 



Over many other parts of the province, great fires 

 raged on the same day ; and the loss to the province, not 

 only in private property, but in the public forests con 

 sumed, was immense. The loss of private property at 

 Miramichi alone was estimated at 228,000. Nor, in 

 such burnings, is the public injury confined to the old 

 forest trees consumed, which it will take many years to 

 replace, but the soil itself is permanently injured by 

 every such visitation. The clouds of ashes borne away 

 by the wind are an actual robbery by nature, and an 

 exhaustion of the land. It is in this way, no doubt, 

 among others, that land is destroyed, as the provincials 

 term it, by frequent burnings. 



On this occasion, cinders and smoke were observed at 

 Quebec, on the banks of Newfoundland, and even as far 

 off as the Bermudas. 



Laws are enacted, in most parts of North America, 



