224 Notes upon the Dark Days of Canada. 



readers will not fail to notice the coincidence between the phe- 

 nomena described below, and those which were observed at St 

 Vincent, and other islands in the West Indies, upwards of a 

 year ago." 



This narrative is entitled, " Remarks on board ship in the 

 River St Lawrence, distant about twenty miles from the Bay of 

 Seven Islands above the Island of Anticosti, 3d July 1814. 



*' Yesterday morning, at six a. m., the weather dark and 

 cloudy, with a few drops of rain falling, winds high and variable, 

 chiefly from the eastward, and through the day carrying all 

 sail : the sails, however, of very little use, from a swell of the sea 

 from the westward, which rendered the pitching of the ship very 

 great, and nearly endangered the carrying away of the masts 

 and yards. Towards evening the swell abated. During the day 

 the clouds appeared to be coming with great rapidity from the 

 northward ; horizon and atmosphere thick and hazy. At night 

 the darkness excessive, the masts and rigging scarcely visible 

 from deck. About nine p. m. a sort of dust or ashes commenced 

 falling, and continued during the night. Towards the morning 

 the whole atmosphere appeared red and fiery to a wonderful 

 degree, and the moon, then at the full, not visible, and the ap- 

 pearance through the cabin windows and crystal lights on the 

 deck singular in the extreme, as if surrounded by a mass of fire ; 

 the sea sparkling much, and in a manner not usual in those lati- 

 tudes. At half-past seven in the morning, candles lighted in 

 the cabin, and the hour, by a watch, at nine, scarcely visible, 

 the flame of the candle burning of a bright bluish-white colour, 

 and the fire in the cook-house the same, the wind dying away 

 to a dead calm. Towards noon to-day, the atmosphere resumed 

 something of its natural appearance, and the sun visible, but red 

 and fiery, as in the winter season, as if seen through the darken- 

 ed glass of a quadrant, and by degrees becoming more of a 

 yellow colour. Weather hazy and sultry, a dead calm, and the 

 sea scarcely agitated. The sea covered with ashes, and a bucket 

 of water taken up appeared nearly as black as writing ink, from 

 the quantity of ashes which had fallen : they appeared as those 

 of burnt wood, and not of a heavy sandy nature, a strong smell 

 perceptible in the air, and a violent headach complained of by 

 many on board. 



