THE DARK DAY IN CANADA.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2339, 1 October 1881, Page 3

THE DARK DAY IN CANADA.

In some interesting and graphic reminiscences of Montreal sixty years ago, Mr J. EL Darwin writes to the "Montreal Star" as follows'—"What was the strangest occurrence of that time, or rather the strangestthing that ever happened in the history of this oountry, was what has been always known as the ' Phenomenon of 1819.' On the morning of Sunday, November Bth, 1819, the ran roße upon a cloudy sky, which assumed, as the light grew upon it, a strange greenish tint, varying in places to an inky blackness. After s> short time the whole sky became terribly dark, dense black clouds filling the atmosphere, and there followed a heavy shower of rain, which appeared to be something of the nature o£ soapsuds, and was found to have deposited after settling a substance in all its qualities resembling soot. Late in the afternoon the skycleared to its natural aspect, and the next day was fine and frosty. On the morning of Tuesday, the 10th, heavy clouds again covered the sky, and changed rapidly from a deep green to a pitchy black, and the sun, when occasionally seen through them, was sometimes of a dark brown or an unearthly yellow color, and again bright orange, and even blood red. The clouds constantly deepened in color and density, and later on a heavy vapor seemed to desoend to the earth, and the day became almost as dark as night, the gloom increasing and diminishing most fitfully. At noon lights had to be burned in the courthouse, the banks, and public offices of the city. Everybody was more or less alarmed, and many were the conjectures as to the cause of the remarkable occurrence. The more sensible) thought that immense woods or prairies were on fire somewhere to the west; others "aid that a great volcano must have broken out in the province; still others asserted that our mountain was an extinct crater about to resume operations and to make of the city a second Pompeii ; the superstitious quoted an old Indian prophecy that one day the island of Montreal was to bs destroyed by an earthquake ; and some even cried that the world was about to come to an end. About the middle of the afternoon a great body of clouds seemed to rush suddenly over the city, and the darkness became that of night. A pan?? and hush for a moment or two suore'ded, and then one of the most glaring dashes of lightning ever beheld darned over the country, accompanied by a clap of thunder which seemed to shake the city to its foundations. Another pause followed, and then came a light shower of rain of the same soapy and sooty nature a* that of two days before. After that it appeared to grow brighter, but an hour later it was as dark as ever. Another rush of clouds came, and another vivid flash of

lightning, which was se6n to strike the spire of tho old French parish church, and to play curiously about tho large iron cross at its summit before descending to the ground. A. moment later came the climax of the day. Erery bell in the city suddenly rang out the alarm of lire, and the affrighted citizens rushed out from their houses into the streets and made their way in the gloom toward tho church, until the Place d'Armes was crowded with people, their nerves all unstrung by the awful events of the day, gazing at, but scarcely daring to approach the strange sight before them. The sky above and around was aa black as ink, but right in one spot in mid-air above them was the summit of the spire with the lightning playing about it shining like a sun. Directly the great iron oross, together with tho ball at its foot, fell to the ground with a crash, and was shivered to pieces; But tho darkest hour somes just before the dawn. The glow above gradually subsided and died out, the people grew less fearful, and returned to their homes, the real night came on, and when next morning dawned everything was bright and clear, ard the world was as natural as before. The phenomenon wet noticed in a greater or less degree from Quebec to Kingston, and far into the States, but Montreal seemed its centre. It has never yet been explained,'*