65 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



Sometimes the forests are injudiciously set on fire by 

 the settlers, to save the labour of cuttino- and par- 

 tially ■ burning ; but by such indiscriminate confla- 

 gration, the land is not properly cleared, and a very 

 strong and noxious plant, called the fire-weed, in- 

 stantly springs up, exhausting all the fertility of the 

 ground. Sometimes these conflagrations extend 

 over the whole face of a country, producing the most 

 fearful destruction of life and property. The spectacle 

 of a burning forest, according to the accounts of 

 those who have witnessed it, is most sublime. The 

 flames leap from tree to tree, and rushing up to their 

 tops, throw out immense volumes of fire from the 

 thick clouds of smoke that hang over the burning 

 mass, while the falling trees come down with the 

 most tremendous crash. One of the most destruc- 

 tive of these fires took place a few years ago in New 

 Brunswick. We extract an account of this calamity 

 from Mr. M'Gregor's work : — 



'■" In October 1825, upwards of a hundred miles 

 of the country, on the north side of 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 concep- 

 tion of the fury and rapidity with which the fires 

 rage through the American forests during a dry hot 

 season ; at which time the underwood, decayed ve- 

 getable substances, fallen branches, bark, and withered 

 trees are as inflammable as a total absence of mois- 

 ture can render them. When these tremendous fires 

 are once in motion, or at least when the flames ex- 

 tend over a few miles of the forest, the surrounding 

 air becomes highly rarefied, and the wind naturally 

 increases to a hurricane. It appears that the woods 

 had been, on both sides of the north-west branch, 

 partially on fire for some time, but not to an alarm- 

 ing extent, until the 7th of October, when it came on 



