Manitoba Pageant, Winter 1969, Volume 14, Number 2
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Red River,
December 19, 1832
From Thomas Simpson at Red River
To James Hargrave at York Factory
"On the' second instant at daybreak a most extraordinary meteor was seen by the bishop and other credible witnesses in various parts of the settlement. Passing up from Lake Winnipeg, its body appeared about the size of a nine-gallon keg but differently shaped, being elliptical, with a long bushy tail emitting fiery sparks."
"Its course was steady and regular, travelling very slightly above the earth at the rate of a horse on the gallop. In passing Mr. Sutherland's it descended so low as to brush the top of the willows and desperately frightened a woman who was standing at the woodpile. She threw herself down expecting the whole world would be in conflagration about her."
"Near the Forks it was observed to shape its course up the Assiniboine [River] and was subsequently seen at [Lake] Manitobah. It has given rise among the knowing ones to diverse fearful prognostics of cholera and other terrible Calamities."
Submitted by Gwain Hamilton, Victoria, from the Hargrave Correspondence, edited by G. P. de T. Glazebrook; The Champlain Society, 1938 Edition, page 96.
Page revised: 19 July 2009
