16 



NATURAL HISTORY OF VERMONT. 



Part. I. 



DARK DAY. 



INDIAN SUMMER. 



METEORS. 



darkness of this nature, which has occur- 

 red since the settlement of this country, 

 was on the memorable 19th of May, 

 1780, emphatically denominated the dark 

 day. The darkness at that time is known 

 to have covered all the northern parts of 

 the United States and Canada, and to 

 have reached from lake Huron eastward 

 over a considerable portion of the Atlan- 

 tic ocean. It was occasioned chiefly by a 

 dense smoke, which evidently had a pro- 

 gressive motion from southwest to rioth- 

 east. In some places it was attended with 

 clouds and in some few with rain. The 

 darkness was not of the same intensity in 

 all places, but was so great through near- 

 ly the whole of this extensive region as to 

 cause an entire suspension of business 

 during the greater part of the day, where 

 the country was settled, and in many pla- 

 ces it was such as to render candles as 

 necessary as at midnight. Several liypoth- 

 eses have been advanced to account for 

 this remarkable darkness, such as an erup- 

 tion of a volcano in the interior of the 

 continent, the burning of prairies, «fcc., 

 but by the one advanced in the preceding 

 article, it receives an easy e.\plication. 

 The regions at the southwest are known 

 to be extremely productive, and to have 

 been, at that period, deeply covered with 

 forest sand plants, whose leaves and perish- 

 able parts would be sufficient, during their 

 decay, to fill the atmosphere to almost any 

 extent ; and nothing more would be neces- 

 sary for the production of the phenome- 

 non, than a change of atmospheric press- 

 ure, which should produce a sudden con- 

 densation, and a southwesterly wind. 



Indian Summer. — It has been said, 

 though we do not vouch for its truth, that 

 it was a maxim with theaborigines of this 

 country, which had been handed down 

 from time immemorial, that there would 

 be 30 smoky days both in the spring and 

 autumn of each year; and their reliance 

 upon the occurrence of tliat number in 

 autumn was such that they had no fears 

 of winter setting in till the number was 

 cortipleted. This phenomenon occurred 

 between the middle of October and the 

 middle of December, but principally in 

 November ; and it being usually attended 

 by an almost perfect calm, and a high 

 temperature during the diiy, our ances- 

 tors, perhaps in allusion to the above 

 maxim, gave it the name of Indian Sum- 

 mer. But it appears that from the com- 

 mencement of the settlementof the coun- 

 try, the Indian Summers have gradually 

 become more and more irregular and less 

 strikingly marked in their cliaracter, un- 

 til they have almost ceased to be noticed. 

 Now upon the hypothesis advanced in the 



preceding articles, this is precisely what 

 we should expect. When our ancestors 

 arrived in this country, the whole conti- 

 nent was covered with one uninterrupted, 

 luxuriant mantle of vegetation, and the 

 amount of leaves and other vegetable pro- 

 ductions, which were then exposed to 

 spontaneous dissolution upon the surface 

 of the ground, would be much greater 

 than after the forests were cut down and 

 the lands cultivated. Every portion of 

 the country being equally shielded by the 

 forest, the heat, though less intense, on 

 account of the immense evaporation and 

 other concurring causes, would be more 

 uniformly distributed, and the changes 

 of wind and weather would be less fre- 

 quent than after portions of the forests 

 had been removed, and the atmosphere, 

 over those portions, subjected to sudden 

 expansions from the influence of the sun 

 upon the exposed surface of the ground. 

 It is very generally believed, tliat our 

 winds are more variable, our weather 

 more subject to sudden changes, our an- 

 nual amount of snow less and our mean 

 annual temperature higher than when 

 the settlement of the country was com- 

 menced. And causes, which would pro- 

 duce these changes, would, we believe, 

 be sufficient to destroy, in a great meas- 

 ure, the peculiar features of our Indian 

 Summers. The variableness of the winds, 

 occasioned by cutting down large por- 

 tions of the forests, would of itself be 

 sufficient to scatter and precipitate those 

 brooding oceans of smoke, and prevent 

 the long continuance of those seasons of 

 dark and solemn stillness, which were, in 

 ages that are past, the unerring harbin- 

 gers of long and dreary winters and delu- 

 ges of snow. 



Meteors and Earthquakes. — Upon these 

 subjectsVermont aff'ords nothing peculiar. 

 The common phenomenon of shooting 

 stars is witnessed here as in other parts of 

 the country, and those uncommon dis- 

 plays which have several times occurred 

 about the 13th of November, have been 

 observed from various parts of the state. 

 In addition to these, several of those rare 

 meteors, from which meteorolites or me- 

 teoric stones are thrown, have been no- 

 ticed, but the records of them are few and 

 meagre. These meteors make their ap- 

 pearance so unexpectedly and suddenly, 

 and continue visible for so short a period 

 of time, that it is hardly possible to make 

 observations sufficiently accurate to fur- 

 nish data for calculating their velocity, 

 distance or magnitude. That most re- 

 markable meteor which passed over New 

 England in a southerly direction in the 

 morning of the 14th of December, 1807, 



