DARK DAY — WHALES. 253 



the sky was like the lurid smoke of a furnace, and about as yellow, 

 the air was so heavy as scarcely to be breathed, while the sailors all 

 turned at once to Mother Shipton's prophecy, and believed, for sure, 

 that the end of the world was about to approach. I afterwards 

 learned that as far down the Gulf as Bonne Esperance, and even 

 at L'Anse Loup, the lamps were lighted at various times from eleven 

 in the morning until four in the afternoon, while nearly all along 

 the coast, some part of the day presented for a short time, an ap- 

 pearance nearly as black as night. I will mention another circum- 

 stance and its interpretation by the captain and crew that appeared 

 most striking. As we drifted along we passed successively, long 

 waves of a fine, yellowish dust powder that lay upon the surface of 

 the water often so thickly as to cover acres of water at a time. It 

 looked precisely like a deposit of sulphur. Part of those spoken to 

 on the subject declared that it was a deposit from the smoke of 

 several forest fires, which we aftenvards know to have raged on 

 Anticosti, as well as several places on the mainland. I believe they 

 said that they had seen something like it before — at least it did not 

 particularly surprise them ; while another class declared that it was 

 the dust or rather pollen from the innumerable alders that line the 

 banks of the rivers all about the coast. The extent of these patches 

 was remarkable, whichever explanation was true. The patches 

 were often over a mile in length, while we passed over many acres 

 of it before leaving it. 



Several whales had played near us during the night, and when 

 first seen, the ridges were declared oil from the whale blowings, — 

 which, often indeed, cover the water for miles ; but during the 

 night all passed off, and in the morning we had passed Esquimaux 

 point, a Roman Catholic sealing settlement of about one hundred 

 and sixty houses, and soon reached Mingan, a most beautiful little 

 harbor of clustered islands, where the varied figures of the tide 

 ripple in the shallow water are one of the most remarkable displays 

 of the kind along the coast. 



