340 Dark days of Canada. 



without exposing the individuals which it enveloped, to the 

 danger of suffocation ; and it is not said in any of the 

 accounts which are extant, that this was the case, or that 

 their eyes were affected, or that there was even a smell of 

 wood-smoke. Captain Payne, has indeed observed "that the 

 dust or ashes collected on the deck appeared to be those of 

 burnt wood ; " but he immediately adds, that they were 

 darker and more heavy than the ashes from a tobacco pipe, 

 which ai-e also vegetable ashes, though of another descrip- 

 tion ; and from the quantity of salts which tobacco contains, 

 tobacco ashes would probably be found heavier, or at least 

 as heavy as an equal quantity of common wood-ashes. He 

 mentions also that the powder which was collected from 

 the surfl^ce of the sea, when dried, resembled a cake of 

 blacking, and from this circumstance I am led to believe 

 that what was so collected might be of a bituminous cha- 

 racter, or possibly the powder of volcanic matter. If it had 

 been wood-coal in powder, I do not apprehend that it 

 would have caked when dried ; and I may add that there 

 was no appearance of lire in the woods, and that this fact 

 was particularly noticed by the inhabitants during their 

 intercourse with the Officers on board the Sir JVilliam 

 Heathcott, and the third narrative ex[)ressly states that 

 " on the second no symptoms of burnt wood were felt." 



But there are among the facts which are detailed, some 

 which cannot be reconciled to the supposition that the 

 phenomena in question were occasioned by the burning of 

 a forest. 1 allude particularly to the presence of sulphur 

 among the black jjulverised matter which fell on the 16th 

 of October, 1785 ; and to the precipitation of the latter in 

 water, from which circumstance it may be presumed to 

 have been of mineral origin, and similar to that which 



