208 THE LABRADOR PENINSULA. CHAP. xin. 



probably for some hundreds of miles and such an event 

 took place in 1857 and 1859, as will be described farther 

 on. There is also presumptive evidence to show that 

 conflagrations of extraordinary extent occurred in 1785 

 and 1814, and gave rise to those unexplained phenomena 

 the 'dark days of Canada'- -which are of sufficient 

 importance to deserve an independent notice. 



A burning forest of spruce and birch is a spectacle of 

 extraordinary sublimity during the night ; it is like a 

 magnificent display of fireworks on a stupendous scale, 

 and far surpasses the conflagrations of the heavier forests 

 in more temperate climates. A spruce tree flashes into 

 flame from the bottom to the top almost instantaneously, 

 with a crackling hissing roar, which when viewed close 

 at hand rivets a breathless attention, not unmixed with 

 anxiety and fear. The light which it casts is vivid and red, 

 the noise sharp, quick, and loud, like an infinite number 

 of snaps repeated with just perceptible intervals. The 

 awful but splendid light thrown through the forest casts 

 the blackest shadows wherever its rays cannot reach. 

 The birch trees flame steadily, pouring forth huge 

 volumes of dense smoke, which whirling high in the air 

 form an opaque screen above the burning forest, from 

 which a lurid light is reflected ; at intervals gusts of 

 wind sweep through the trees, followed by a train of 

 smoke and sparks which, winding through the charred 

 trunks or meeting with violent eddies, rise up in a 

 spiral form to rejoin the black clouds above. When the 

 wind is favourable, a burning spruce forest viewed from an 

 eminence is awfully impressive ; from ten, twenty, to fifty 

 trees at a time columns of flame shoot up, wildly twist- 



