Whirlwinds excited by Fires. 55 



nomena like the foregoing, in those great fires which attend the 

 burning of cities or forests, even if during a gale ; if I except the 

 account contained in the following extract, which appears to indi- 

 cate something of this kind on an extended scale. 



" A Great Fire. — Mirimichi is mentioned* as connected with 

 one of those tremendous fires which sometimes arise in the Amer- 

 ican forests, and spread havoc by circles of longitude and latitude. 

 In the autumn of 1825, such a calamity occurred on the river 

 Mirimichi, which extended 140 miles in length, and in some pla- 

 ces 70 in breadth. It is of little consequence that no wind was 

 stirring at the time ; for, as Mr. McGregor observes, the mere rar- 

 efaction of the air creates a wind, " which increases till it blows 

 a hurricane." In the present case, the woods had been on fire 

 for some days without creating any great alarm. But " on the 

 7th of October, it came on to blow furiously from the westward j 

 and the inhabitants along the banks of the river were suddenly 

 surprised by an extraordinary roaring in the woods, resembling 

 the crashing and detonation of loud and incessant thunder, while 

 at the same instant the atmosphere became thickly darkened with 

 smoke. They had scarcely time to ascertain the cause of this 

 awful phenomenon, before all the surrounding woods appeared in 

 one vast blaze, the flames ascending from one to two hundred 

 feet above the top of the loftiest trees ; and the fire, rolling for- 

 ward with inconceivable celerity, presented the terribly sublime 

 appearance of an impetuous flaming ocean. Two towns, those 

 of Douglass and New Castle, were in a blaze within the hour ; 

 and many of the inhabitants were unable to escape. 



Multitudes of men on lumbering parties perished in the forest ; 

 cattle were destroyed by wholesale ; even birds, unless those of 

 very strong wing, seldom escaped, so rapid was the progress of 

 the flames. Nay, the very rivers were so much affected by the 

 burning masses projected into their waters, that in many cases 

 large quantities of salmon and other fish were scattered upon their 

 shores. Perhaps the plague of fire has never been exhibited, or 

 will be, till the final destruction of this planet, on so magnificent 

 a scale." 



I am unable to give the authorship of this paragraph, which 

 came to my hand through the columns of a newspaper ; but it 



* Mirimichi is in the British province of New Brunswick, near the southwestern 

 borders of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 



