"The third circumstance, which appears the most remarkable of all, regards the extraordinary protection of Divine Providence, which has been extended to us and our habitations; for we have seen near us the large openings and chasms which the earthquake occasioned, and the prodigious extent of country which has been either totally lost or hideously convulsed, without our losing either man, woman, or child, or even having a hair of their head touched."—Jesuits' Journal, Quebec, 1663.
No. XXII.
"The principle in both instances is alike: in the former, the caloric or vital heat of the body passes so rapidly from the hand into the cold iron as to destroy the continuous and organic structure of the part; in the latter, the caloric passes so rapidly from the hot iron into the hand as to produce the same effect: heat, in both cases, being the same; its passing into the body from the iron, or into the iron from the body, being equally injurious to vitality. From a similar cause, the incautious traveler in Canada is burned in the face by a very cold wind, with the same sensations as when he is exposed to the blast of an eastern sirocco. Milton thus alludes to the effects of cold in his description of the abode of Satan and his compeers. After adverting to Styx, he says,
'Beyond this flood, a frozen continent
Lies, dark and wild, beat with perpetual storms
Of whirlwind and dire hail, which on firm land
Thaws not, but gathers heap, and ruin seems
Of ancient pile; all else deep snow and ice;
A gulf profound as that Serbonian bog
Betwixt Damiata and Mount Casius old,
Where armies whole have sunk: the parching air
Burns frore (frozen), and cold performs the effect of fire.'
Paradise Lost, B. 2.
"We also find in Virgil, Georg., i., 93,
'Borea penetrabile frigus adurat.'"—Gray's Canada, p. 290.
No. XXIII.
"This meteor is strongest and most frequent about the arctic circle, or between that and the parallel of 64°. It is now ascertained, we think, beyond all doubt, that the height of the Aurora, instead of being, as supposed by Mr. Dalton and others, above the region of the atmosphere, is, in fact, rarely above six or seven miles. This was satisfactorily proved by angles taken in the same moment at two distant places, always exceedingly small at one or both stations; by the extreme rapidity with which a beam darts from one side of the horizon to the opposite side, which could not happen if 100 miles high or upward; by its frequently darting its beams beneath the clouds, and at very short distances from the earth's surface, and by its being acted upon by the wind. Mr. Hood was told by one of the partners of the Northwest Company that he once saw the coruscations of the Aurora Borealis so vivid and low that the Canadians fell on their faces, and began crying and praying, fearing lest they should be killed; that he threw away his gun and knife, that they might not attract the flashes, for they were within two feet from the earth, flitting along with incredible swiftness, and moving parallel to the surface; he added that they made a loud rustling noise, like the waving of a flag in a strong breeze. This rustling noise, which is universally asserted by the servants of the Northwest Company, was not heard by any of the officers of Captain Franklin's expedition, but he says that it would be an absurd degree of skepticism to doubt the fact any longer, for their observations had rather increased than diminished the probability of it. It has hitherto been supposed that the magnetic needle was not affected by the Aurora; but a vast number of experiments given in the tables prove that, in certain positions of the beams and arches, the needle was considerably drawn aside, and mostly so when the flashes were between the clouds and the earth, or when their actions were quick, their light vivid, and the atmosphere hazy."—Franklin's Journey to the Polar Sea, Nos. II. and III. of the Appendix.
The following is Charlevoix's description of the Aurora Borealis, never before witnessed by the French colonists: