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The Great Controversy 1888
was not caused by clouds, or the thickness of the atmosphere, for in
some localities where the darkness extended, the sky was so clear that
the stars could be seen. Concerning the inability of science to assign
a satisfactory cause for this manifestation, Herschel the astronomer
declares: “The dark day in North America was one of those wonderful
phenomena of nature which philosophy is at a loss to explain.”
“The extent of the darkness was also very remarkable. It was
observed at the most easterly regions of New England; westward, to
the farthest part of Connecticut, and at Albany, N. Y.; to the southward,
it was observed all along the sea coast; and to the north, as far as
the American settlements extended. It probably far exceeded those
boundaries, but the exact limits were never positively known. With
regard to its duration, it continued in the neighborhood of Boston for
at least fourteen or fifteen hours.”
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“The morning was clear and pleasant, but about eight o’clock there
was observed an uncommon appearance in the sun. There were no
clouds, but the air was thick, having a smoky appearance, and the
sun shone with a pale, yellowish hue, but kept growing darker and
darker, until it was hid from sight.” There was “midnight darkness at
noonday.”
“The occurrence brought intense alarm and distress to multitudes
of minds, as well as dismay to the whole brute creation, the fowls
fleeing bewildered to their roosts, and the birds to their nests, and
the cattle returning to their stalls.” Frogs and night hawks began their
notes. The cocks crew as at daybreak. Farmers were forced to leave
their work in the fields. Business was generally suspended, and candles
were lighted in the dwellings. “The Legislature of Connecticut was in
session at Hartford, but being unable to transact business adjourned.
Everything bore the appearance and gloom of night.”
The intense darkness of the day was succeeded, an hour or two
before evening, by a partially clear sky, and the sun appeared, though
it was still obscured by the black, heavy mist. But “this interval
was followed by a return of the obscuration with greater density, that
rendered the first half of the night hideously dark beyond all former
experience of the probable million of people who saw it. From soon
after sunset until midnight, no ray of light from moon or star penetrated
the vault above. It was pronounced ‘the blackness of darkness!’” Said
an eye-witness of the scene: “I could not help conceiving, at the time,