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J few Notes upon the Dark Days of Canada. By the Hon- 

 ourable Chief- Justice Sewell, President of the Literary and 

 Historical Society of Quebec. 



./V.MONG the atmospherical phenomena of Canada, the dark 

 days of October 1785, and of July 1814, appear worthy of notice. 

 They were remarkable for their peculiarity of character, and for 

 the circumstances by which they were accompanied ; and as an 

 attempt to explain the cause of the remarkable obscurity by 

 which they were more particularly distinguished, has never, to 

 my knowledge, been made, I propose in the present paper to offer 

 such accounts of these phenomena as I have been able to collect, 

 with a few observations, which I hope will not be thought un- 

 worthy of attention. 



The first dark day of which we have any detailed account, 

 was Sunday the 16th of October 1785. On the 9th of that 

 month, a short period of obscurity occurred at Quebec, about 

 four in the afternoon, and during its continuance the sky in the 

 north-east quarter below the city exhibited a luminous appear- 

 ance upon the line of the horizon, of a yellow tinge. On the 

 15th5 about three o'^clock in the afternoon, there was a repeti- 

 tion of the same luminous appearance in the horizon in the 

 same quarter, the north-east, accompanied by a second period of 

 obscurity somewhat longer in duration than the first. Both of 

 these periods were accompanied by violent gusts of wind, by 

 thunder, lightning and rain.* 



The morning of Sunday the 16th of October 1785 was per- 

 fectly calm, and there was a thick fog, but the fog was nothing 

 more than what is often seen at that season of the year. Towards 

 nine o'clock, a light air from the north-east sprung up, which in- 

 creased rapidly. The fog by ten o'clock, was entirely dissipated, 

 black clouds were then seen rapidly advancing from the north- 

 east, and by half after ten, it was so dark, that printing of the 

 most usual type could not be read. This lasted for upwards of ten 

 minutes, and was succeeded by a violent gust of wind, with rain, 

 thunder, and lightning, after which the weather became brighter 

 until twelve o'clock, when a second period of so much obscurity 



• Quebec Gazette, 20th October 1785. 



