seen, was the principal tool used to get rid of the great amount of surplus wood resulting from clearing, there was always the risk — in fact it was not so much a risk as an inevitability — of fire spreading into the adjacent woodland35“. This was especially so because such clearance burning usually took place in the spring and early summer precisely when the forest was considered to be more flammable.355 Once the woods adjacent to the land being cleared had been ignited, factors favouring the spread of the fire were perceived to include "dry weather for some time” preceding a fire356; a high softwood component in the forest357; and lower moisture levels in the soil and vegetation358. Once a fire had taken hold in the woods, it could, as Stewart (1806) observed, ”kill the timber for many miles”, while MacGregor (1828) noted that there was no stopping such a fire, ”until it be quenched by rain, or until it has devoured every thing between it and the cleared lands, the sea, or some river”. It thus did not take

35" Several recorders stress that this was a common occurrence:

Selkirk (1803) noted that “accidentally burnt [land] frequently happens from the spreading of the fires made by the settlers in clearing"; Stewart (1806): “care must be taken [during land clearing operations] to prevent the fires running into the forest among the growing wood, which it will often do"; Johnstone (1822): "the burnt woods are occasioned by the fire running away from where the people are burning timber to clear the land".

355 Selkirk (1803) and Stewart (1806) noted that forest rues were more common in the spring or the beginning of summer, due to this being the time when most of the settlers were burning the wood left over from clearance operations. Further support is given by Anon. (1867) who stated that “every spring had its fires in the woods of greater or less extent", and from the preponderance of spring fires in the dated diary entries for actual fires in progress: of the eight fires recorded, five took place in May, an additional two in mid- June, and one in mid-July (see footnote 370).

35° Stewart 1806. 35” Johnstone (1822) refers to "woods much mixed with softwood" as being especially favouring the spread of fires.

35“ Selkirk (1803) considered low moisture levels to occur in the late spring and early summer, saying that in the autumn “there is too much moisture and the fire will not spread", though even then, he said, such fires could cause damage since they ran along the ground, “burning up the dead wood, leaves and bushes", and though only seeming to scorch the trunks of the larger trees, the following year the trees would fail to produce any leaves. By contrast thirty years earlier, Patterson (1773) had considered that moisture levels in the vegetation and soil were higher in the Spring and beginning of summer, and he used this as justification for enacting legislation to encourage burning in the woods in that season; concomitantly, he said that in the autumn “the sap is almost dried and the soil so dry as to burn. The roots will then take fire and there may be a danger of the large trees being destroyed", and for that reason he prohibited the setting of fires in that season.

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long before there were large scale effects of fire on the forests of the island.359

Forest fires in action — We have two vivid descriptions of forest fires from writers who clearly had seen what they were describing: MacGregor (1828) emphasizes the sights and sounds connected with the burning, while Johnstone (1822) includes the effects on the human population:

MacGregor: These fires present at times the most sublime and grand, though terrific and destructive appearance. The flames are seen rushing up the tops of the trees, and ascending an immense height among the tremendous clouds of black smoke, arising from a whole forest on fire; the falling trees come down every moment with a tremendous crash, while the sparks are flying and crackling, and the flames extending to every combustible substance.

Johnstone: When the fire gets hold of woods much mixed with soft wood, it runs sometimes several miles, and forms in its progress . one of the most awful scenes in nature; flying when the wind is high with amazing rapidity, making a noise like thunder, and involving the neighbourhood in a dense cloud of smoke. It sometimes kills cattle and wild beasts in the woods, and alarms new settlers who have small clearances round their houses, and who have to stand with water ready to quench the first spark that may alight upon them, or fly with their children, not knowing where to find safety.

A third anonymous writer recalls the appearance of the fires at night:

The woods on fire presented a scene of terrible beauty and magnificence. At night it is really sublime. Everything is dry and everything burns rapidly. The flames run along the fallen leaves, and rage among the windfalls and other debris of the forest. Suddenly they seize the lowermost branches of a fir or spruce tree, and in an instant it becomes a pyramid of fire—the flames darting high above the tallest trees. In the morning the

burned woods are a melancholy sight. 36°

The effects of forest fires — The harmful effects of such fires were widely recognized: the loss of ”so

35" Apart from the already mentioned Selkirk (1803), Stewart

(1806) and MacGregor (1828), other recorders who noted the major role of fire in the destruction of the forests of the island were [MacDonald] (1804), Johnstone (1822), Gesner (1846), Monro

(1855), Ward (1887), Burke (1902) and Crosskill (1904), and nine respondents to the Questionnaire (1876).

36° Anon. 1867.