CANADA. 323 



1 ' that his Military regulations were thin thwarted by partur-, the whole system of nature in Canada ap 



v~ those, who ought to have most vigorously seconded pea red to have undergone a fatal revolution. The 



his injunctions, replied, in a paroxism of passion, that, most tremendous him ieaiies,earthqtiakes,tbu;ideringi, 



since the crime was not punishable in that woman, and fiery meteors, p> rvadcd almost every quarter of 



neither should it be to in any other person. He con- the province, to a degree altogether unprecedented 



sidered it as a point of honour not to retract his de- in that country. The largest trees were torn up by 



duration ; nnd, in consequence of the licence thus the roots, and the rivers turned out of their courses ; 



permitted in the disposal of ardent spirits, both the mountains were overthrown from their foundations, 



natives and the soldiery became so completely de- and whole districts enveloped in flames, which issued 



bauched, that all order and decency were dihn-giud'-d, from the bo\v; 1 of the earth ; the coasts were cover- 



the clergy openly insulted, and ttie bishop compelled ed with sea monsters cast ashore, and every element, 



to embark for France, in order to lay his complaints in short, seemed labouring to announce the dissolu- 



before the king. Almost immediately after his de- tion of the world.* These awful calamities were to 



The following particulars of this remarkable event, extracted from the journal of the French Jesuits at Quebec, and 

 first published in Lambert's Travels in Canada, (though rather to be regarded as a curious legend, than a creditable record,) 

 nm prove interesting to our readers. " It was on the 5th of February 1063, about half past five o'clock in the even- 

 ing, that a great rushing noisf was heard throughout the whole extent of Canada. ThU noise caused the people to run 

 out of their houses into the .streets, as if their habitations had been on fire; but, instead of flames and smoke, they were 

 surprised to .see the walls reeling backwards nnd forwards, and the btones moving, as if they had been detached from each 

 other. The bells rang of their own accord. The roofs of the buildings bent down, (list on one bide, and then on the 

 other. The timbers, rafters, and planks cracked. The earth trembled violently, and caused the Makes of the palisade* 

 and palings to dance in a manner, that would have been incredible, had we not actually seen it in several places. At 

 that moment it was, that every one run out of door.. Then were to be seen animals flying in all directions; children 

 crying and screaming in the streets; men and women seized with a.'lright, stood horror-struck with the dreadful trene 

 before them, unable to move, and ignorant where to fly for refuge from the tottering walls and trembling earth, which 

 threatened, every instant, to crush them to death, or sink them into a profound and immeasurable aby.^.s. Some thre-.v 

 themselves on their knees in the snow, crossing their breasts, and calling upon their saints to relieve them from the 

 dangers, with which they were surrounded. Others passed the r.-st of this dreadful night in prayers; for the earthquake 

 ceased not, but continued at short intervals, with a certain undulating impulse, resembling the waves of the ocean; and the 

 same qualmish sensation, or sickness at the stomach, was felt during the .shocks, as is c\)>erienced in a vessel at sea. The 

 violence of the earthquake was greatest in the forests, where it appeared as if there was a battle raging between the trees, for 

 not only their branches were destroyed, but even their trunks are said to have been detached from their places, and dashed 

 against each other with inconceivable violence and confusion ; so much so, that the Indians, in their figurative manner of 

 s-j leaking, declared, that all the forests were drvnk. The war, also, seemed to be carried on between the mountains, some of 

 which were torn from their beds and thrown upon others, leaving immense chasms in the places from whence they had issued ; 

 and the very treer, with which they were covered, sunk down, leaving only the tops above the surface of the earth. Others 

 were completely overturned, their branches buried in the earth, and the roots only remained above ground. During this 

 general wreck of nature, the ice, upwards of six feet thick, was rent and thrown up in large pieces; and from the openings 

 in many parts, there issued thick clouds of smoke, or fountains of dirt and sand, which spouted up to a very considerable 

 height. The springs were either choked up or impregnated with sulphur. .Many rivers were totally lost ; others were di- 

 verted from their course, and their waters entirely corrupted. Some of them became yellow, others red, and the great river of 

 St Lawrenee appeared entirely vchitc as far down as Tadoussac. This extraordinary phenomenon must astonish those who. 

 knew the size of the river, and the immense body of water in various parts, which must hav required such an abundance of 

 matter to whiten it. They write from Montreal, that, during the earthquake, they plainly saw the stakes of the picketing, or 

 palisades, jump up, as if they had been dancing; that, of two doors in the same room, one opened and the other shut of their 

 own accord; that the chimneys and tops of the houses bent, like the branches of trees agitated by the wind ; that, when they 

 went to walk, they felt the earth following them, and rising at every step they took, sometimes .striking against the sole of the 

 foot and other things* in a very forcible and surprising manner. From Three Rivers they write, that the first shock was the 

 most violent, and commenced with a noise resembling thunder. The houses were agitated in the same manner, as .the tops 

 of trees during a tempest, with a noise, as if fire was crackling in the garrets. The lir^t shock lasted half an hour, or rather 

 better, though its greatest force was properly not more than a quarter of an hour ; and we believe there was not a single shock, 

 which did not cause the earth to open more or less. As for the rest, we have remarked, that, though this earthquake con- 

 tinued almost without intermission, yet it was not always of an equal violence. Sometimes it was like the pitching of a large 

 vessel, which dragged heavily at her anchors; and it was this motion, which occasioned many to have a giddiness in their 

 heads, and qualmishness at their stomachs. At other times, the motion w as hurried and irregular, creating sudden jerks. 



ol a prodigious height, were torn from their foundations, and plunged into the river, causing it to change its course, and spread 

 ;ll over a large tract of land recently cleared : the broken earth mixed with the waters, nd, for several months, changed 

 e colour of the great river St Lawrence, into which that of Trois-rivicres disembogued itself. In the course of this violent 

 convulsion of nature, lakes appeared where none ever existed before; mountains were overthrown, swallowed up by the gap- 

 ing earth, or precipitated into adjacent rivers, leaving in their place frightful chasms or level plains. FaUs and rapids were 

 langed into gentle stream-:; ;m<l gentle streams into falls and rapids. Rivers, in many parts of the country, sought other 

 beds, or totally disappeared The earth and the mountains were violently split and Vent in innumerable places, creating 

 chasms and precipices, whose d-pths have never yet been ascertained. Such devastation was also occasioned in the woods, 

 it more than a thousand acres, in one neighbourhood, were completely overturned ; and where, but a short time before, DO- 

 hmg met the eye but one immense forest of tre-s, now were to IK- h.en extensive cleared lands, apparently just turned up by 

 ie plough. At Tadoussac, about 150 miles Ix-low Quebec, on the north shore, the effect of the earthquake was not less vio- 

 than in other places, and such . heavy shower of volcanic ashes f.-!i In that neighbourhood, particularly in the river St 

 n-ence, that the waters were as violently agitated ns during a tm.pc: t. Near St Paul's bay, about 50 miles below Quebec. 

 ie north shore, a mountain, about a quarter of a league :n circumference, situated on the shore of the St Lawrence, was 

 precipitated into the river ; but, as if it had only made a plunge, it arose from the bottom, and became a small island, form- 



