394 Prof. Hall on the extraordinary darkness ofJVov. 1819. 



grces below the horizon. The colour of objects was very remark- 

 able. Every thing I beheld wore a dull, smoky, melancholy ap- 

 pearance. The paper, on which I was writing, had the same yel- 

 lowish-white hue as the heavens. The fowls showed that peculiar 



restlessness that 



during the total eclip 



the sun in 1806. Some of them retired to roost. The cocks 



crowed several hours incessantly, as they do at tlie dawning 

 of day. 



-L 



At 3 P. M. the sky brightened up a little, but in the evening 

 the darkness became more extraordinary. A person could not 

 discern his hand, held directly before his eyes. It was next to 

 impossible for a person to find his way even in streets where he had 

 been long accustomed to walk. 



The sun was concealed from our view, nearly the whole time, 

 from Monday evening to Friday morning. It did occasionally ap- 

 pear, but was always of a deep blood-red colour ; and the appar- 

 ent magnitude was at least one third larger than usual. This was 

 very striking on Friday, about nine in the morning. A dense, yel- 

 low vapour was then passing slowly over its enlarged disc. The 

 spectacle was viewed by many with astonishment. 



The darkness was not confined to this immediate vicinity. It 

 was as great seventy miles west (in the state of New Yojnk^ as kt 

 this place. And here I beg leave to insert an extract of a letter, 

 on this subject, from Noadiah Moore, Esq. of Champlain, N. Y. a 

 well informed and highly respectable gentleman. 



" The darkness was first noticed on the night of the 6th Nov. 

 when the day closing with a hazy atmosphere, the night became so 

 exceedingly dark as to render the sense of siglit wholly useless. 

 The horse and Ids rider were in equal uncertainty. The moon, 

 though near the full, produced no sensible change as it rose. Even 



