Canadian Forestry Journal, November, J 91 7 



1409 



Recollections of Canada's Greatest 

 Forest Fire 



An interesting document has come 

 to the attention of the Forestry 

 Journal. It is an authentic descrip- 

 tion of Canada's most extensive for- 

 est fire, that known as the "Mir- 

 amichi Disaster" in New Brunswick 

 of October 7, 1825. The property 

 damage has been variously estimated 

 from one to twenty millions of dol- 

 lars, but the loss of life was greatly 

 less than was caused by the Ontario 

 "Claybelt Horror" of 1916. 



A First-hand Description 



Rev. Dr. W. 0. Raymond, now 

 residing in British Columbia, ciuotes 

 a^Methodist Minister, Robert Cooney, 

 who passed through the awful ex- 

 periences of the New Brunswick 

 disaster, in the following picturesque 

 strain: 



"The tremendous bellowing be- 

 came more and more terrific. The 

 earth seemed to stagger as if it had 

 reeled from its ancient foundation. 

 The harmony of creation seemed to 

 have been deranged. Earth, air, sea 

 and sky; all visilDle creation, seemed 

 to conspire against man and to totter 

 under the weight of some dreadful 

 commission they were charged to 

 execute. The river, tortured into 

 violence by , the hurricane, foamed 

 with rage and flung its boiling spray 



upon the land. The thunder pealed 

 along the vault of heaven; the light- 

 ning rent the firmament in pieces. 

 For a moment, and all was still, a 

 deep and awful silence reigned over 

 everything. All nature appeared to 

 be hushed into dumbness, when sud- 

 denly a lengthened and sullen roar 

 came booming through the forest and 

 driving a thousand massive and de- 

 vouring flames before it. Then New- 

 castle and Douglastown, and the 

 whole northern side of the river, ex- 

 tending from Bartibog to the Nash- 

 waak, a distance of more than a hun- 

 dred miles in length became enveloped 

 in an immense sheet of flame that 

 spread over 6,000 square miles. 



"The Surges of the River \ 



Mr. Cooney continued: — "What 

 shall we say of the tremendous howl- 

 ing of the storm, dashing broken and 

 burning trees and scorching sand and 

 flaming houses through the air? What 

 of the boiling surges of the river and 

 its different tributaries, flinging their 

 maddened foam all round them, and 

 smashing everything that came within 

 their fury? What of the indescribable 

 confusion on board 150 large vessels 

 imminently exposed to danger; many 

 of them frequently on fire, some burn- 

 ing and others burned? 



"Even now, the shrieks, screams 

 and cries of a wretched and beggared 

 people involved in ruin, desolation 



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