252 RIVER LIFE. 



settlements upward of two hundred vessels annually load with 

 timber for Great Britain, &c. Seven miles above Chatham the 

 Mirimachi divides into two branches, one running southwest and 

 the other northwest. The southwest branch of the river con- 

 tains more water than the River Thames from London upward. 

 The sea-coast of Mirimachi is low, but inland the country rises 

 in some places, consisting of extensive and rich intervales, in oth- 

 ers of a rugged, rocky territory." 



This river is particularly prominent, in the history of New 

 Brunswick, for the astonishing amount of ton timber which was 

 formerly procured from the territory bordering it, and as the scene 

 of a bloody and protracted riot on the part of the Irish population, 

 chiefly emigrants, who rose en masse, and attempted to drive the 

 Americans, who had flocked there in large numbers, from the 

 country. Desperate encounters took place from time to time be- 

 tween small parties, but the Americans maintained their ground 

 against fearful odds, and after the lapse of a few months quiet 

 and order again prevailed. But in a more particular and im- 

 pressive sense will the Mirimachi be remembered as the scene 

 of one of the " most terrible natural conflagrations of which we 

 have any record in the history of the world." The annexed ac- 

 count* will be found deeply interesting. 



" The person who has never been out of Europe," and, we may 

 add, out of our cities and older portions of country in the States, 

 *' can have little conception of the fury and rapidity with which 

 fires rage after a continuation of hot seasons in North America 

 and New Holland, when the dry underwood and fallen leaves, 

 in addition to the resinous quality of the timber, afford combust- 

 ible materials in the greatest abundance. I have seen the side 

 of a mountain thirty miles long burning in New Holland, and 

 illuniining the sky for many miles ; but the following description 



* History of Nova Scolia and New Brunswick. 



