ing 10,000 houses; another in April destroying
property to the value of $5,000,000, according to one historian, and
according to another, $15,000,000; and in the latter part of the year
another, sweeping fully 10,000 houses more out of existence. It seemed
as if Constantinople was doomed to utter annihilation.

In 1751 a fire in Stockholm destroyed 1,000 houses and another fire in
the same city in 1759 burned 250 houses with a loss of $2,420,000.

In 1752 a fire in Moscow swept away 18,000 houses, involving an
immense loss.

In 1758 Christiania suffered a loss of $1,250,000 by conflagration. In
1760 the Portsmouth (England) dock yards were burned, with a loss of
$2,000,000.

In 1764 a fire in Konigsburg, Prussia, consumed the public buildings,
with a loss of $3,000,000; and in 1769 the city was almost totally
destroyed.

In 1763 a fire in Smyrna destroyed 2,600 houses, with a loss of
$1,000,000; in 1772 a fire in the same city carried off 3,000
dwellings and 3,000 to 4,000 shops, entailing a loss of $20,000,000;
and in 1796 there were 4,000 shops, mosques, magazines, etc., burned.

In 1776, six days after the British seized the city, a fire swept off
all the west side of New York city, from Broadway to the river.

In 1771 a fire in Constantinople burned 2,500 houses; another in 1778
burned 2,000 houses; in 1782 there were 600 houses burned in February,
7,000 in June, and on August 12 during a conflagration that lasted
three days, 10,000 houses, 50 mosques, and 100 corn-mills, with a
loss of 100 lives. Two years later a fire, on March 13, destroyed
two-thirds of Pera, the loveliest suburb of Constantinople, and on
August 5 a fire in the main city, lasting twenty-six hours, burned
10,000 houses. In this same fire-scourged city, in 1791, between March
and July, there were 32,000 houses burned, and about as many more
in 1795; and in 1799 Pera was again swept with fire, with a loss of
13,000 houses, including many buildings of great magnificence.

In 1784 a fire and explosion in the dock yards, Brest, caused a loss
of $5,000,000.

But the greatest destruction of life and property by conflagration, of
which the world has anything like accurate records, must be looked for
within the current century. Of these the following is a partial list
of instances in which the loss of property amounted to $3,000,000 and
upward:

Dates--Cities: Property destroyed.
1802--Liverpool: $5,000,000
1803--Bombay: 3,000,600