Progress
The earliest report of the darkness came from Rupert, New York, where the sun was already obscured at sunrise. Professor Samuel Williams observed from Cambridge that: "This extraordinary darkness came on between the hours of 10 and 11 am and continued till the middle of the next night." Reverend Ebenezer Parkham, of Westborough, Massachusetts, reported peak obscurity to occur "by 12", but did not record the time when the obscuration first arrived.
At Harvard College, the obscuration was reported to arrive at 10:30 am, peaking at 12:45 pm, and abating by 1:10 pm, although a heavy overcast remained for the rest of the day. The obscuration was reported to have reached Barnstable, Massachusetts, by 2:00 pm, with peak obscurity reported to have occurred at 5:30 pm.
At 2:00 pm in Ipswich, Massachusetts, roosters crowed, woodcocks whistled, and frogs peeped as if darkness had fallen. A witness reported that a strong sooty smell prevailed in the atmosphere, and that rain water had a light film over it that was made up of particles of burnt leaves and ash.
Read more about this topic: New England's Dark Day
Famous quotes containing the word progress:
“The State must follow, and not lead, the character and progress of the citizen.”
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“... most reform movements in our country have been cursed by a lunatic fringe and have mingled sound ideas for social progress with utopian nonsense.”
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