Ragnarok : the age of fire and gravel

Al4 CONCLUSIONS.

apart, in three different States, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Illinois, fires of the most peculiar and devastating kind broke out, so far as we know, by spontaneous combustion.

In Wisconsin, on its eastern borders, in a heavily timbered country, near Lake Michigan, a region embracing Jour hundred square miles, extending north from Brown County, and containing Peshtigo, Manistee, Holland, and numerous villages on the shores of Green Bay, was swept bare by an absolute whirlwind of flame. There were seven hundred and fifty pecple killed outright, besides great numbers of the wounded, maimed, and burned, who died afterward. More than three million dollars’ worth of property was destroyed.*

It was no ordinary fire. I quote:

“At sundown there was a lull in the wind and comparative stillness. For two hours there were no signs of danger ; but at a few minutes after nine o’clock, and by a singular coincidence, precisely the time at which the Chicago fire commenced, the people of the village heard a terrible roar. It was that of a tornado, crushing through the forests. Instantly the heavens were illumi. nated with a terrible glare. The sky, which had been so dark a moment before, burst into clouds of flame. A spectator of the terrible scene says the fire did not come upon them gradually from burning trees and other objects to the windward, but the first notice they had of it was @ whirlwind of flame in great clouds from above the tops of the trees, which fell upon and entirely enyeloped everything. The poor people inhaled it, or the intensely hot air, and fell down dead. This is verified by the appearance of many of the corpses. They were found dead in the roads and open spaces, where there were no visible marks of fire near by, with not a trace of burning upon. their bodies or clothing. At the Sugar Bush, which is an extended clearing, in some places four miles in width,

* See “History of the Great Conflagration,” Sheahan & Upton, Chicago, 1571, pp. 393, 39-4, ete,

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