HOLOCAUST IN CANADA.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 93, 10 October 1911, Page 6

HOLOCAUST IN CANADA.

TOO AWFUL FOI! WORDS. WHOLE COUNTRY IN FLAMES. Fuller details received from Canada concerning the forest tires which occurred there in July last throw light on a period of critical interest. According to a private letter from Mr. A. C. Mack, 8.E., of Sydney, who is at present employed in the capacity of mining engineer by Bewick, Morein* and Co. at Porcupine, Ontario, camps' mine plants, and even whole towns were obliterated, the destruction being complete wherever the fire passed. Only three of the large mines of the district escaped being burned out. of which that of Mr. Mack himself' was one owing partly to its position and partly to the fact that a previous fire bad already burnt out all the timber adjacent to the mine. By midday on Tuesday, July i 3) the wind had attained a velocity of SO miles an hour, and by midday the smoke obscured the entire scenery at a distance of 10 yards The .whole country was ablaze' for miles around, and every now and then a terrific explosion seemed to shake the air as the magazines of the various mines'

As the afternoon wore on men beo-an to pour into camps in various stages" of exhaustion, and with grim stories of men burned or drowned before their «es. All the townships in the district were said to have been burned out and a rumor was spread that a camp of 10 men about five miles to the north had suffered the same fate. Fortunately this proved not to bo the case, though every place to the south avid west had been burned and hundreds of families outside 1 orcupine were homeless.

In South Porcupine nothing was loft •f over 200 houses, while the charred corpses of cattle, horses, dogs a,,,! even human beings were to be seen everywhere. The destruction both of life and property was ap.palling. The town of 1 ottsville, about two miles from Porcupine, containing about .->• houses wis utterly destroyed, but only one life was lost.

A large mine, named the Dome, with a newly-installed plant costing halt •,. milhou dollars, was absolutely incinerated. I„ one of the shafts the bodies were found of Hi persons who had taken refuge there and been suffocated—ls men, three women and a little girl. Altogether the number- of bodies recovered liy July 1,-i i„ the neighborhood "f 1 orcupine was over 70, but the number of men known to ha in the bush rendered any uxact estimate as to the loss or lite impossible.

Incongruously enough, Mr. Mack's .letter declares that the nights at the time when he was writing were cold enough for fires in the house.

"I have seen hush fires :l .t different tones, cowhides Mr. Mack, "but this was too awful i„r words."