sels. These, with the altar carpet were about all that was saved from the building as the fire progressed too rapidly to save the altars, paintings or any of the heavier furnishings. The main church, the new vestry, and the old vestry, which was about thirty feet from the old one, were all burned to the ground and the parochial house was saved with great difficulty. The fur¬ niture was all removed from the house, as it looked though it would be im¬ possible to save it. So completely were the buildings destroyed that all the woodwork or timber remaining from the three could be piled on a single truck and the ground for some distance around is deeply burned. The entire cemetery is thickly covered with flakes of burned shingles and with cinders. The glare of the conflagration was seen all over this part of the country, being visibly plain at Summerside , , Malpeque , Bedeque , and many other places, and many correctly located the fire. The glare in the sky was plainly visible at Charlottetown , nearly forty miles distant. This with the continual play of electricity, made the sky a scene of terrible gran¬ deur. Hundreds of people were quickly on the grounds, but they could do nothing to save the church, and, had the wind been in the opposite direction, their efforts to save the house would also have been in vain. The new bell which stood a little distance from the vestry was saved uninjured, though the framework was burned and broken. St. Mary's church, Indian River , was erected in 1843. It was about ninety feet in length, by fifty in width, with a large tower adjoining at the south end, and a large new vestry at the north end. It was beautifully sit¬ uated, and was rather a handsome edifice. Interiorly, it was a beautiful edifice, or church, being finely arched and frescoed throughout. In fact we know of no church of its size in the provinces in which there was better fresco painting, the paintings of the arches and chancel especially being works of art of a high class. The chancel and the three altars which stood in it were very pretty. The whole interior was a model of chaste church architecture and paintings, and the destruction of the building is sincerely regretted by many hundreds outside of the congregation. The loss of the parish cannot be less than ten or twelve thousand dollars. There was no insurance. Two or three thousand dollars insurance was carried on the building until a short time ago, when it was allowed to lapse." When Mgsr. Gillis decided to build St. Mary's church again the zeal and co-operation of all people in supplying lumber and all essentials and completing the job was overwhelming. Special mention goes to Mr. Thomas Tuplin and sons for their generosity in sawing all lumber for this church free of charge. A valuable contribution to any building project. Priests of form¬ er years who served the Parish were Rev. Bernard MacEachern later first Bishop of P.E.I. , Rev. L. O'Deligney . In 1842 Rev. James MacDonald , Rev. James McKenna , Rev. Cornelius O' Brien . Rev. John Chassion , Rev. John A . MacDonald 1890-1929 Monsignor D. J. Gillis , and Rev. Joseph Traenor served while Father Reginald was overseas. The present parochial house was constructed in 1886 and is still being used today by Father L. P. Callaghan . A note of interest to us in one of the scrapbooks was that when the first St. Mary's was being built the money system used on the Island was pounds, shillings, and pence, and fathings. This system was used until our present Canadian coins were issued in the 1870's. 12