1410 



Canadian Forestry Journal, November, 1917 



and despair, ring their mournful 

 cadences upon the ear. God, mer- 

 ciful and just! how shuddering were 

 the frantic cries, the wild expressions 

 of horror, and the despairing groans 

 of hundreds upon hundreds of poor 

 homeless creatures, flying from their 

 smoking habitations, they knew not 

 whither, and mingling the thrilling 

 cries of their anguish with the yells, 

 roarings and bellowings of wild beasts 

 and domestic animals perishing by 

 fire and suffocation !" ^ 



Witnesses Still Living 



Though the Miramichi fire occur- 

 red ninety-two years ago there are at 

 least three persons now living who 

 were in New Brunswick at the time, 

 and old enough to remember it . 



One of these is Mrs. Vanderbeck, 

 who now lives at Millerton, in the 

 Miramichi district. Her son is post- 

 master of the village. She saw the 

 fire and distinctly remembers it. 

 Another is William Henry Best of 

 River Glade, Albert County, New 

 Brunswick. Mr. Best will be a hun- 

 dred years old in January. He "re- 

 members vividly the day when the 

 wind brought the smoke and burned 

 leaves from the north to his home in 

 Kings County." — s 



The third is Mrs. George De Beck, 

 who has lived in this province half a 

 century, but spent the first half and 

 something more in New Brunswick. 

 This lady is now in her 103rd year, 

 and was eleven years o'd at the time 

 of the Miramichi fire. 



The Early Forests 



Says Rev. Dr. Raymond: — "The 

 season had been an unusually dry 

 one and forest fires were prevalent. 

 On October 7, 1825, fire from the 

 neighboring woods destroyed about 

 eighty buildings in Fredericton, in- 

 cluding the lieutenant-governor's resi- 

 dence. This fire was an offshoot of a 

 conflagration that was raging over a 

 large forest area. On the same day 

 that Fredericton was so severely 

 scourged the fire began to menace the 

 settlements on the Miramichi. Up 

 and down this river the territory was 

 covered by a magnificent forest. 



which held out the promise of great 

 wealth in coming years, and which 

 even then was contributing nearly 

 half the exports of the Province of 

 New Brunswick. It is estimated 

 that the area swept by the conflagra- 

 tion was not less in extent than five 

 or six thousand square miles. Any- 

 one caught in the forest who could 

 not reach the Miramichi was doomed 

 to die. Most of the settlers' houses 

 between the Miramichi and Fred- 

 ericton were burned and many lives 

 lost. 



Towns Wiped Out 



The comparatively small number 

 of inhabitants was the only thing that 

 prevented the disaster from being 

 even more appalling. Newcastle, 

 with two hundred and sixty houses 

 and nearly one thousand inhabitants, 

 was almost totally destroyed; only 

 twelve buildings escaped. Douglas- 

 town experienced a like fate, and of 

 seventy buildings only six were left. 

 Moorfields was left in ashes. The 

 settlements in Ludlow were utterly 

 destroyed. Bartibog, Napan and 

 Black River were involved in the 

 common ruin. Sparsely peopled as 

 was the country, the loss of life and 

 property was not inconsiderable. 

 One hundred and sixty people per- 

 ished, 600 buildings were burned, 

 seventy-five head of cattle were de- 

 stroyed. The total loss was esti- 

 mated at 227,714 pounds. But this 

 was not all Thousands of fur-bear- 

 ing animals were destroyed. Even 

 the fish in the rivers were killed in 

 large numbers by the fierce heat or 

 poisoned by the alkili of the ashes 

 that fell into the water. Next to 

 human life, perhaps, the most deplor- 

 able loss was the destruction of the 

 forest, which represented the growth 

 of ages. 



"The year before the fire the quan- 

 tity of hewn pine timber exported 

 from the River Miramichi was greater 

 than that of the St. John. Thou- 

 sands of destitute people were glad 

 to share the relief provided by public 

 generosity. The subscriptions am- 

 ounted to 40,000 pounds, including 

 a donation of 1400 pounds from "His 

 Most Gracious Majesty." 



