10 



ahead of the fire to a small creek or inlet of the sea. 

 They could not reach the open sea-coast because the 

 fire was between them and it. They stood on the 

 shore of this inlet as long as they could and then 

 waded out into the water and put wet sacks and 

 blankets over their heads to keep themselves from 

 being scorched by the flames. Here a new danger 

 confronted them. The intense heat of the hre 

 caused the breeze to become a hurricane which 

 lashed the water of the inlet into high waves. These 

 swept some of the poor settlers off their feet and 

 they were drowned. One woman was too ill to 

 stand and her relatives put her into the only boat 

 at hand and endeavoured to escape by rowing down 

 the inlet toward the sea, but the boat capsized in the 

 waves and the sick woman and all the others in the 

 boat were drowned. Altogether out of that little 

 settlement fifteen people were suffocated or drowned. 

 That evening those who escaped, the fire having 

 passed by, came out of the water and lay down on 

 the sand. Next morning they made their way 

 along the shore until they came to another small 

 settlement that had escaped. They could not go 

 back to their own settlement for their homes were all 

 in ashes, and all their food and clothing and furniture 

 had disappeared." 



"That was certainly a terrible event" said the 

 Stove, but another fire like that with such a dreadful 

 loss of life might not occur in all North America in 

 the next hundred years." 



"Alas!" said the Yellow Birch in the desk nearest 

 the Stove, "in my home in northern Ontario 72 

 people lost their lives in the year 1911 and at least 

 224 more (for the exact total was never known) in 



