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the vicinity. There was no hope of extinguishing the fire. The tide was going out, but even had it been high it could not have availed. The thermometer was below zero, and a keen north-west wind froze everything before it. The engines, clogged with ice, were soon rendered useless, and in dismay at the prospect, men lost their heads and worked with an utter lack of method or system. Large quantities of goods were thrown on and over the wharves or taken to the Market square for safety, but still larger quantities were left to burn. In other instances boats were at hand to take goods, but so far as the owners were concerned little was saved in this way. As the flames advanced, numbers of boats came across from Strait Shore and Carleton, loaded whatever could be picked up and went back, the boatmen appropriating their finds for their own use. From the amount of thieving that was done that night, some of the Carleton people were compared to Algerine pirates, and the term "Algerine" was for many years a nick-name for the dwellers on the west side of the harbor.

The military, however, were of great service that night in preventing still greater depredations. The men of the 43rd regiment and of the artillery were early on hand with the ordnance engine, but while the apparatus was of limited usefulness, the men, working coolly and with system, were of material aid, both in rescuing goods from the flames and in guarding them.

Sweeping easterly up Peters wharf, the flames seized the building owned by John Walker, which stood at the corner of Water street and what is now known as Jardine's alley, where the present Jardine building stands. Then the fire went south along Water street, as far as the present Magee building on the west and to the Disbrow brick building, adjoining the present post office, on the east side. The Disbrow building